R is with deep regret that we chronicle the loss
of the Cobra ' turbine torpedo-boat destroyer, which was wrecked on Wed- nesday morning on the Outer Dowsing Shoal off the Lincoln. shire coast. The vessel was on her way from the contractors' yard at Newcastle to Portsmouth. The destroyer's dinghy, with twelve survivors on board, which was picked up by the P. and 0. steamer Harlington ' on Wednesday evening, was the only boat that Was not swamped in the act of launch- ing. Including the navigating party, artificers in the con- tractors' employ, and stevedores, there were nearly eighty men on board the Cobra,' and it is feared that sixty-seven lives have been lost. The terrible ill-luck that has attended the turbine destroyers—it will be remembered that the Viper' was sunk during the recent manoeuvres—is greatly to be regretted, quite apart from the recent loss of life, for these very fast destroyers promised to be of great service to the Navy. It should be pointed out, however, that in neither case does the turbine system of propulsion seem to have been in any way to blame, and that the loss of both vessels was due purely to the chief peril of the sea,—rocks and shoals. All that the Admiralty can do is to repeat their order.
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