HMS Lorna
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
| {{Infobox ship begin |display title=HMS Lorna}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} |Hide header= |Ship name=SY Beryl |Ship owner=*Wyndham Francis Cook (1904-1905) |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=388 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=31 August 1904 |Ship completed= |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship identification= |Ship fate=Sold, 1911 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} |Hide header=title |Ship name=SY Lorna |Ship owner=Samuel Morley, 1st Baron Hollenden |Ship acquired=1911 |Ship fate=Requisitioned by the Admiralty, 1914 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Hide header=title |Ship name=HMS Lorna (024) |Ship acquired=30 September 1914 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Returned to owner, 2 February 1919 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} |Hide header=title |Ship name=SY Lorna |Ship owner=Walter Preston |Ship acquired= |Ship fate=Requisitioned by the Admiralty, 1939 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Hide header=title |Ship name=HMS Lorna (4.65) |Ship acquired=September 1939 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=Returned to owner, 1943 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Greece |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Greece|civil}} |Ship name=*Thessalia (1947) |Ship owner=Kavounides Bros |Ship acquired=July 1947 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Sank at Piraeus, 14 December 1966, raised and scrapped at Perama 1968 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header=title |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship tonnage=*484 grt |Ship length={{convert|168.5|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|25.2|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draught= |Ship propulsion=*steam
|Ship speed={{convert|13|kn|km/h mph|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship complement= |Ship armament=*2 x QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss (1914) }} |
HMS Lorna was a British armed yacht which served in the Royal Navy. Originally built in 1904 as a luxury steam yacht, she served in both the First and Second World Wars and destroyed a German U-boat in 1918. After the war, she became a passenger vessel in Greece, but sank in 1966 and was scrapped two years later.
History
=Luxury yacht=
The vessel was completed in October 1904 at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock on the River Clyde in Scotland and was named Beryl. She had been ordered by Wyndham Francis Cook,{{cite web |url=http://forums.clydemaritime.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=12971 |title=Lorna 1904 HMS - Armed Yacht |last= |first= |date=31 August 2011 |website=forums.clydemaritime.co.uk |publisher= |access-date=13 November 2016 |quote= |archive-date=14 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114084323/http://forums.clydemaritime.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=12971 |url-status=dead }} the son of Francis Cook, 1st Viscount of Monserrate, a wealthy textiles merchant; however, Wyndham died in May 1905.{{cite web |url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p25102.htm#i251014 |title=Wyndham Francis Cook |last=Cardinal |first=John |date= |website=thepeerage.com |publisher= |access-date=13 November 2016 |quote=}} It was purchased in that year by the shipbuilder, John Burns, 1st Baron Inverclyde, and in 1911 to Samuel Morley, 1st Baron Hollenden, a former Governor of the Bank of England, who renamed the yacht Lorna.
=First World War=
At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the yacht was requisitioned and hired by the Admiralty as an armed patrol vessel. Equipped with two 6-pounder guns and depth charges. Lorna probably operated as the Group Leader of a unit of the Auxiliary Patrol, both in home waters and in the Mediterranean.{{cite web |url=http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishShips-Dittmar4AP.htm |title=World War 1 at Sea - Ships of the Royal Navy, 1914-1919 - AUXILIARY PATROL VESSELS, Part 1, Yachts to Trawlers |last=Dittmar |first=F J |date= |website=naval-history.net |publisher= |access-date=12 November 2016 |quote=LORNA (ex-BERYL), hired yacht, Pendant No 024. Built 1904, 427grt/484TM. Armament: 2-6pdr. In service 30.9.14-2.2.19. May have served as wireless-equipped A/P Group Leader or in special yacht squadrons, at home or in Mediterranean.}} On the evening of 26 May 1918, Lorna was escorting a convoy off Portland Bill at the eastern end of Lyme Bay. Sighting a submarine's periscope only thirty yards away, Lorna was able to approach to ten yards before the U-boat spotted her and began to dive. Passing directly over where the periscope had been,{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Robert M |date=2003 |title=The U-boat Hunters: Code Breakers, Divers and the Defeat of the U-boats, 1914-1918 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQJ9E78e7uEC&dq=%22Lorna%22+armed+yacht+u-boat+1918&pg=PA69 |location= |publisher=Periscope Publishing Ltd |page=69 |isbn=978-1904381150 }} (some accounts state that Lorna struck the periscope) Lorna dropped two depth charges resulting in a large patch of turbulence with some debris in it. Returning to recross the area, it was realised that some items in the water were actually four survivors from the U-boat, their calls for help being heard too late to prevent a third charge from being dropped. Three of the men in the water were killed instantly, the fourth was still alive when recovered but died within three hours,{{cite book |last=Gray |first=Edwin A |date=1994 |title=The U-Boat War: 1914-1918 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Hl-AwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Lorna%22+armed+yacht+u-boat+1917&pg=PA249 |location= |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Ltd |page=249 |isbn=978-0850524055 }} although not before revealing that the destroyed submarine had been the {{SMS|UB-74|sub=y}}. Lorna was returned to her owner in February 1919, she was then sold on to Walter Preston, an engineer and Member of Parliament.
=Second World War=
In September 1939, the yacht was again requisitioned as an armed patrol vessel, equipped with a 12-pounder gun. She initially served with the North Atlantic Command at Fort William in Scotland. One of Lorna's captains was Robert Atkinson, who in 1980 became the chairman of British Shipbuilders.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/15/sir-robert-atkinson |title=Sir Robert Atkinson obituary |last=Adeney |first=Martin |date=15 February 2015 |website=theguardian.com |publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited |access-date=13 November 2016 |quote=}} At the end of 1940 she was serving at Gibraltar and was later used as an officers' mess.{{cite book |last=Dear |first=Ian |date=1985 |title=The Royal Yacht Squadron 1815–1985 |url=https://www.rys.org.uk/assets/documents/appendix-3-ww2-yachts.pdf |publisher=Hutchinson |page=174 |isbn=978-0091625900}} She was returned to her owner in 1943.
=Post war=
In 1947, Lorna was sold to Kavounides Brothers of Piraeus in Greece and converted to carry passengers; she was renamed Thessalia. In 1960, she was reconstructed with a single diesel engine and renamed Glaros but sank following a collision at Piraeus on 14 December 1966. The wreck was raised and finally scrapped at Perama in 1968.