Qualla: HMS Cobra https://qualla.com/hms-cobra en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: HMS Cobra https://qualla.com/hms-cobra HMS Cobra: Introduction https://qualla.com/hms-cobra/ Photo credit Alistair4717, CC BY-SA 4.0. Six weeks after sister ship Viper sank in the Channel Islands, on the morning of 18 September 1901, the brand-new turbine destroyer HMS Cobra broke in half off the South Dowsing Shoal and went down. She had been at sea for less than two days, on her way south from the Tyne to Portsmouth for her guns and ammunition. Sixty-seven men died: forty-four Royal Navy officers and ratings, twenty-three civilians from the shipbuilders and from Parsons Marine, the firm whose revolutionary new turbines drove her. Twelve survived. The court-martial blamed structural weakness. The shipyard blamed wreckage in the water. The Royal Navy lost one of its only two turbine-powered ships and most of its faith in the experiment. The dead included the crew, the manufacturers' representatives, and the man whose company had just proven a technology that would eventually power every warship in the world.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/u12z-hms-cobra-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full HMS Cobra: Built on Speculation https://qualla.com/hms-cobra/ Photo credit Alistair4717, CC BY-SA 4.0. Armstrong Whitworth laid down Yard 674 at Elswick on the Tyne on 27 May 1898, without an order. The firm believed it could sell a turbine-powered destroyer to the Admiralty if it built one fast enough. The launched hull was christened Cobra on 28 June 1899 and fitted with Parsons...

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Image: Alistair4717 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/u12z-hms-cobra-built-on-speculation.mp3 0:06 2 full HMS Cobra: A Storm Out of Newcastle https://qualla.com/hms-cobra/ Photo credit Alistair4717, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cobra left Elswick at 11:00 on 17 September 1901 under Lieutenant Bosworth Smith with two officers, forty-eight Navy men and twenty-three civilians, including Parsons Marine engineers and Armstrong Whitworth staff watching their handiwork put to sea. The wind was already up from ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/u12z-hms-cobra-a-storm-out-of-newcastle.mp3 0:06 3 full HMS Cobra: Cloud of Steam, Then Two Halves https://qualla.com/hms-cobra/ Photo credit Alistair4717, CC BY-SA 4.0. The lightvessel crew watched Cobra plunging heavily as she came on. She stopped suddenly in a cloud of steam and broke in two between the aft boilers, 150 feet from her bows. The stern section sank quickly. The bow drifted in the wind. Chief Engineer Percey, in the engine room, f...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/u12z-hms-cobra-cloud-of-steam-then-two-halves.mp3 0:06 4 full HMS Cobra: One for Many https://qualla.com/hms-cobra/ Photo credit Alistair4717, CC BY-SA 4.0. One sailor who reached the dinghy after a long swim looked at the men already aboard and said, by the survivors' account, "It's one for many, good-bye all," and let go. He sank and did not rise. Lieutenant Smith was last seen standing on the bridge as the bow went down. The twelv...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/u12z-hms-cobra-one-for-many.mp3 0:06 5 full HMS Cobra: The Inquiry That Was Kept Secret https://qualla.com/hms-cobra/ Photo credit Ralph Cleaver, Public domain. The court-martial in October 1901 absolved the surviving officers and found that the ship had broken from structural weakness rather than from striking anything. Carpenter's Mate Privett had reported two slight shocks before the break, and Armstrong's Philip Watts pointed to a on...

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Image: Ralph Cleaver | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/2/z/hms-cobra-wp/u12z-hms-cobra-the-inquiry-that-was-kept-secret.mp3 0:06 6 full