Behold! The 276-foot, 1100-ton British S-class destroyer HMS Stronghold. Built by Scott’s, laid down March 1918, launched 6 May 1919, and completed 2 July 1919, she was used as a test-bed for an interesting bit of kit in the 1920s.
Here she is fitted with the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Larynx. This designation was for the Long Range Gun with Lynx Engine, an inert unmanned missile on a cordite-fired catapult mounted aboard Stronghold. The picture was taken July 1927. The man on the box is Dr. George Gardner; later Director of RAE.
That year the device was tested three times. On the first, the craft, which could reach 200mph and was controlled by radio, crashed at sea. The second, it roared off, was spotted about 100 miles away (at sea) and then was never seen again. The third test, on October 15, 1927, flew some 112 miles and impacted some 5 miles from its intended target.
The catapult was removed from Stronghold after this test although a sister-ship, HMS Thanet, conducted two more launches in 1928 while a final two were done over British-occupied Iraq in 1929 with similar results.
HMS Stronghold herself was lost in action south of Java 4 March 1942, destroyed by (manned) warplanes of the Imperial Japanese Army.
