HMS Pheasant was one of 85 Admiralty M-class destroyers built during the First World War for the Royal Navy. She hit and was sunk by a mine in 1917.
Description The Admiralty M class were improved and faster versions of the preceding .Gardiner & Gray, p. 76 They displaced . The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . Pheasant was powered by a single Brown-Curtis direct-drive steam turbine turning three propeller shafts, using steam provided by three Yarrow boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The ships carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave them a range of at . The ships' complement was 76 officers and ratings.Friedman, p. 296
The ships were armed with three single QF Mark IV guns and a QF 2-pounder () "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun. They were also fitted with two above-water twin mounts for torpedoes.Gardiner & Gray, p. 79; March, p. 174
Construction and career Pheasant was ordered as part of the 5th War Emergency Programme in May 1915. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at its shipyard in Govan on the Clyde and launched on 23 October 1916. Completed in December, she was assigned to the Grand Fleet,Friedman, p. 309; March, pp. 179–180 joining the 15th Destroyer Flotilla.
On the morning of 1 March 1917 the destroyer, together with a number of armed trawlers, was taking part in a routine patrol of the Western entrance to Scapa Flow, the Grand Fleet's anchorage in Orkney. Pheasant was off Hoy when the trawlers observed a large explosion, due to Partridge striking a mine.Naval Staff Monograph No 34, pp. 262–263. The destroyer sank with the loss of 89 lives. The sinking has variously attributed to a drifting mine from a field laid by the German armed merchant cruiser in 1915–1916, a mine laid by the submarine in January 1917, or one laid by . Only one body and a small amount of debris was recovered by the trawlers.
The wreck lies roughly E-W, in of water at and was found by divers from the Army Sub-Aqua Club on 13 May 1996.
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