HMS Kale was a Hawthorn Leslie type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1903–1904 Naval Estimates.

On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by alpha characters starting with the letter 'A'.

After 30 September 1913, she was known as an E-class destroyer and had the letter ‘E’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.

[6][7] In December 1913, Kale entered another refit, this time at Pembroke Dockyard with the aim of retubing her boilers.

[11] On 27 March 1918 Kale was lost after striking a contact mine in the North Sea with the loss of 41 officers and men.

He had steered a course which was six miles east of the swept channel [i.e. swept for mines] 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.