HMS Hydra

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Eight ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hydra after the hydra of Greek mythology. The ship's badge is a representation of the hydra as a serpent with seven heads [1] The ship's motto was Ut Herculis Perseverantia (Latin: "Like Hercules Persevere").

• HMS Hydra (1778) - a Sixth-rate ship launched on 8 August 1778 at Deptford. 454 tons (builder's measurement), she carried 24 guns with a complement of 160 men. Sold on 1 May 1783.

• HMS Hydra (1797) - Fifth-rate ship launched on 30 May 1797. 1,024 tons with 38 guns and eight 32 pounder carronades. Active in the Napoleonic Wars. Sold in 1820.

• HMS Hydra (1838) - a wooden steam paddle sloop launched in July 1838 at Chatham Dockyard. 818 tons and 6 guns. As HM Survey Vessel Hydra surveyed for the Admiralty until paid off in 1868 and was sold in 1870.

• HMS Hydra (1871) - a Cyclops class turret ship launched on 28 December 1871 at the Elder yard in Govan. 3,480 tons displacement, she was heavily armoured and carried four 10-inch 18-ton guns and a complement of 190 men. Sold on 7 July 1903 and broken up in Genoa. See photograph at [2].

• HMS Hydra (1912) an Acheron or "I" class destroyer launched on 19 February 1912 and sold on 9 May 1921 to for scrap.

• HMS Hydra (1941) a Landing Ship Infantry ("LSI(L)") - taken up from trade on 23 July 1941 and renamed HMS Hydra. Launched on 27 August 1930, at the yard of Alexander Stephen in Govan, she was the 9,890 tons (gross displacement) passenger-cargo liner SS Kenya, designed for the British India Steam Navigation Company's India and East Africa service (see [3]). In October 1941, she was renamed HMS Keren in order to release the name for a new minesweeper (see below). In 1942, she was converted to carry 1500 troops and 24 landing craft, and saw service in the Mediterranean and North African campaigns. She was purchased by the Ministry of War Transport in 1946 but sold two years later for service with the Italian Alva Steamship Company (renamed Fairstone). She was transferred to the associate Sitmar Line and re-entered service in 1952 as the Castel Felice (see [4]), serving various routes from Italy before, in 1954, working the North Atlantic service and mostly the UK-Australia run (see [5]). She was sold for scrap in Formosa in 1970.

• HMS Hydra (J275) - an Algerine class minesweeper launched on 29 September 1942, at the yard of Lobnitz, Renfrew.

• HMS Hydra (A144) - oceanographic survey vessel launched in 1966 and sold to Indonesia in 1986.

The name has been awarded seven Battle Honours:

• Syria 1840
• Dogger Bank 1915
• Jutland 1916
• North Sea 1943
• Arctic 1943-44
• Normandy 1944
• South Atlantic 1982

[edit] Commanding Officers since 1778

An incomplete list. Surnames in bold (years of birth and death, where known, in brackets) with dates in command

• Captain George Mundy RN - October 1802 to September 1810 (see print dated 1818 at [6])
• Captain Horatio Beauman Young RN - 1845
• Commander Thomas Belgrave RN – from half pay 17 January 1852 to 10 August 1852 (invalided)
• Commander William Everard Alphonso Gordon RN – transferred from HMS Styx and temporarily in command 11 August 1852 to 21 January 1853
• Commander Henry Gage Morris RN – from HMS Fisgard 22 January 1853 to 10 May 1856 (ship paid off)
• Captain A L Mansell RN - 1864 to 1865
• Captain Peter Frederick Shortland RN (1815-1888) † - 1866 to 1868
• Lieutenant Francis G Glossop RN - at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916
• Commanding officers since 1966 - see list at HMS Hydra (A144)

_{† Author of A Sounding Voyage of HMS Hydra (1868), in eight volumes, he retired as a Captain RN in 1870 and then qualified as a barrister, being called to the bar in 1873; he practised in the Admiralty court. He was subsequently promoted on the retired list to Rear-Admiral in 1876 and Vice-Admiral in 1881. See entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [7]}