HMS Vectis (D51) HMS Vectis (D51) HMS "Vectis" (D51) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and the Russian Civil War. "Vectis", the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered in July 1916. She was laid down by J. Samuel White at Cowes, Isle of Wight and launched on 4 September 1917. She was completed on 5 December 1917. V- and W-class destroyers like "Vectis" were assigned to the Grand Fleet or Harwich Force for the rest of World War I. In early June 1918, "Vectis" conducted towing trials with the NS-class
History of Torquay by the future Emperor Vespasian during the invasion of Britain in 43 considering his extensive actions in the South West, during which according to the Roman historian Suetonius: "He reduced to subjection two powerful nations, more than twenty towns, and the island of Vectis". No evidence has been found of Roman settlement in the area but Roman finds have been uncovered in nearby Totnes, Newton Abbot and on Berry Head on the opposite side of Torbay existed an Iron Age fort and a cache of Roman coins was discovered in 1730, including among others a coin of the Emperor Claudius