HMS Success was a B-class torpedo boat destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 21 March 1901. On 27 December 1914 she was wrecked off Fife Ness during heavy gales.[1]
HMS Success was ordered on 30 March 1899 from William Doxford & Sons as part of the British Admiralty's 1899–1900 shipbuilding programme,[2] one of twelve "thirty-knotter" destroyers ordered from various shipyards under this programme.[3] Success closely resembled Doxford's, ordered under the 1897–1898 programme, with the major difference being that the ship had three funnels rather than four.[4]
Success was 215feet long overall and 210feet between perpendiculars, with a beam of 21feet and a draught of 8inchesft10inchesin (ftin).[4] Displacement was 380LT light and 425LT full load.[5] Four Thornycroft boilers fed two triple-expansion engines rated at 6000ihp which drove two propeller shafts, giving a speed of .[4] [6] Armament was as standard for the "thirty-knotters", with a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt (3inches calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.[7] [8]
Success was laid down at Doxford's Sunderland shipyard as yard number 282 on 18 September 1899, launched on 21 March 1901 and completed in May 1902.[2]
Success was commissioned at Portsmouth on 9 June 1902 by Commander Douglas Nicholson and the crew of, which had been docked for repairs after going aground.[9] She succeeded the latter ship in the Portsmouth instructional flotilla,[10] and took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII.[11] Commander Hubert Brand was appointed in command on 20 December 1902,[12] but left after only three weeks in mid-January 1903 to take the command of HMS Arab, which succeeded the Success as senior officer′s ship in the Portsmouth flotilla.[13]