HMS Kale, E-class - River-class destroyer
Royal Navy - HMS Kale, a Hawthorn Leslie type River-class destroyer ordered under the 1903-1904 Naval Estimates and named after the Kale Water in the Scottish Borders, as the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy. Kale was laid down on 16 February 1904 at the Hawthorn Leslie shipyard at Hebburn-on-Tyne and launched on 8 November 1904 and completed in August 1905. After commissioning Kale served with various Flotilla in Home waters, until, on 27 March 1918 Kale was lost after striking a British contact mine in the North Sea with the loss of 41 officers and men. The court martial enquiry was very critical of Commander Dennison, as he had steered a course which was six miles east of the swept channel and straight into a prohibited area which contained a defensive British minefield; details of the restricted zone had been promulgated several weeks earlier, but he had failed to read them or to see that the information provided was marked on the charts
