HMS Scourge
was built by Hawthorn Leslie and launched 11th February 1910. She
was eventually sold for breaking up at Briton Ferry 9th May 1921.
She was a Beagle Class destroyer and served at Gallipoli being used
to transfer Regiments ashore at Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay. She also
took part in the rescue of survivors from the hospital ship HMHS Britannic.
The
8th LHR were shipped across from Lemnos to Gallipoli aboard the "Foxhound
& Scourge". The 9th LHR aboard "Scourge & Scorpion",
and the 3rd LHFA aboard "Wolverine", Friday 21st May 1915
and trans-shipped these men to lighters and barges about a mile off
shore from Anzac Cove. On
15th August 1915 the 4th Battalion Northampton Regiment transferred
to HMS Foxhound and HMS Scourge and landed by barges and lighters under
sporadic shell fire at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli. The Battalion was allowed
to bathe in the sea before being called up into Reserve to 162nd Brigade
who were already in battle. Captain H L Wright was wounded by a bullet,
and 2 other ranks were also wounded. HMHS
Britannic (1914), the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of
the White Star Line, sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, sank
in 1916 after hitting a mine with the loss of 30 lives. At 10:00 HMS
Scourge sighted the first lifeboats and ten minutes later stopped and
picked up 339 survivors.
The Beagle
class (officially redesignated as the G class in 1913) was a class
of sixteen destroyers of the Royal Navy, all ordered under the 1908-1909
Programme and launched in 1909 and 1910. The Beagles served during
World War I, particularly during the Dardanelles Campaign of 1915.