HMS Lizard was an Acheron-class destroyer

Acheron class destroyer

The Acheron class was a class of twenty-three destroyers of the British Royal Navy, all built under the 1910-11 Programme and completed between 1911 and 1912, which served during World War I. A further six ships were built to the same design for the Royal Australian Navy as River-class destroyers...

 of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She is named for the Lizard peninsula

The Lizard

The Lizard is a peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at ....

 in the county of Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 in England. and was the twelfth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

Pennant numbers

Pennant Number	From	|To
H58	6 December 1914	|1 January 1918
H60	1 January 1918	|Early 1919
H62	Early 1919	|4 November 1921

Construction

Lizard was laid down on 1 January 1911 during the building programme of 1910–11 by Cammell Laird and Company

Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...

 of Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

. She was launched on 10 October 1911. She had two funnels, each with red and white funnel bands. Capable of 28 knots (54.9 km/h), she carried two 4 inches (102 mm) guns, other smaller guns and 21 inches (533.4 mm) torpedo tubes and had a complement of 72 men.

The Battle of Heligoland Bight

She was present with First Destroyer Flotilla on 28 August 1914 at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, led by the light cruiser Fearless

HMS Fearless (1912)

HMS Fearless was an Active-class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched on 12 June 1912.On commissioning she was assigned to the Harwich Force with her sisters, and was the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla...

.

Battle of Jutland

Lizard took part in the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

 as part of the First Destroyer Flotilla. She survived the battle unscathed and with no known casualties.

Goeben and Breslau

On 19 January 1918 the two German-Turkish ships SMS Breslau

SMS Breslau

SMS Breslau was a Magdeburg-class light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine , built in the early 1910s. Following her commissioning, Breslau and the battlecruiser were assigned to the Mittelmeerdivision in response to the Balkan Wars...

 and Goeben

SMS Goeben

SMS Goeben was the second of two Moltke-class battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy, launched in 1911 and named after the German Franco-Prussian War veteran General August Karl von Goeben...

  passed through the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

 to the Aegean

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

. The two ships were shadowed by a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 flotilla

Flotilla

A flotilla , or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers...

 that was stationed there to intercept them, of which Lizard was a part, along with Raglan

HMS Raglan

HMS Raglan was a First World War Royal Navy Abercrombie-class monitor.-Design:On 3 November 1914, Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel offered Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, the use of eight /45 cal BL MK II guns in twin gun turrets, originally destined for the Greek battleship...

, M28

HMS M28

HMS M28 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. She was sunk during the Battle of Imbros in 1918.-Design:Intended as a shore bombardment vessel, M28s primary armament was a single 9.2 inch Mk VI gun removed from the HMS Grafton. In addition to her 9.2 inch gun, she also possessed...

 and Tigress

HMS Tigress (1911)

HMS Tigress was an Acheron-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that served during World War I. She was built under the 1910–11 shipbuilding programme by R. W...

. The German ships out-gunned their opposition, sinking the two monitors

Monitor (warship)

A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...

, M28 and Raglan, but subsequently ran into a minefield

Naval mine

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...

. Breslau struck a mine and sank immediately, with the loss of 330 men. Goeben was damaged but managed to escape.

Otranto Barrage

During April 1918, as part of the 1918 Naval campaign in the Adriatic, Lizard was deployed to the Corfu division of the Otranto Barrage destroyer patrol.