Serpent was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 9 November 1885 as a member of the of torpedo cruisers, was launched on 10 March 1887 and completed in March 1888.[1]
Torpedo cruisers were small, relatively fast, ships intended to defend the fleet against attacks by hostile torpedo boats, while themselves being capable of attacking hostile fleets with torpedoes. The Archer class were enlarged derivatives of the earlier, which carried a heavier armament.[2]
Serpent was 2402NaN2 long overall and 2252NaN2 between perpendiculars, with a beam of 362NaN2 and a draught of 14feet. Displacement was 1770LT normal and 1950LT full load.[1] The ship's machinery, built by Harland and Wolff,[3] consisted of two horizontal compound steam engines rated at 4500ihp, which were fed by four boilers and drove two shafts for a speed of .[1] 475 tons of coal were carried, sufficient to give a range of,[3] and three masts were fitted.[1]
Armament consisted of six 6-inch (5 ton) guns, backed up by eight 3-pounder QF guns and two machine guns. Three 14-inch torpedo tubes completed the ship's armament. Armour consisted of a NaNinches deck, with 1inches gunshields and 3inches protecting the ship's conning tower. The ship had a complement of 176 officers and ratings.[1]
Serpent took part in the 1888 Fleet manoeuvres, where her machinery proved unreliable, and in the 1889 manoeuvres.[3] On 8 November 1890, Serpent left Devonport to relieve the sloop on the West African Station.[3] On the night of 10 November, Serpent was caught in a heavy storm in the Bay of Biscay and attempted to reach shelter, but ran aground on Cape Vilan near the village of Camariñas in Galicia, northwest Spain. All but three of her crew were killed.[3] [4] The resulting court martial investigating the cause of the loss of Serpent concluded that the ship had been lost as a result of a navigation error.[5]
The dead are buried where they were washed ashore at the English cemetery, Costa da Morte,[6] Galicia.
The anchor was located in 2024 adorning a house in Muxía (La Coruña), though it was recovered from the sea about 25 years previously.https://www.elindependiente.com/espana/2024/11/23/recuperan-ancla-siglo-xix-casa-vecino-muxia[7]
. William Laird Clowes. The Royal Navy: A History From the Earliest Times to the Death of Queen Victoria: Volume VII. 1903. Sampson Low, Marston and Company.