Difference between revisions of ""V" Class Destroyer (1917)"

Revision as of 19:36, 11 July 2019

A total of 25 destroyers of the "V" Class were completed in 1917-1918.

Design

The bridge replaced the conventional canvas screens with steel plates to better resist heavy seas. This required the dumaresq and Line of Sight Indicator to be duplicated to port and starboard pairs. The chart table jutted out from the bridge, and a director was fitted. A panel with torpedo control instruments was also sited on the bridge.^[1]

Performance

The ships' capacity for 365 tons of fuel, delivered the following endurance.^[2]

Machinery

Generators

In 1916, it was stated that "new destroyers" have two 26.25 kw dynamos arranged in parallel.^[3] It is likely that this applied to this class.

Armament

4-in Guns

• Four 4-in Q.F. Mark V guns on C.P. II mountings^[4] with 30 degree elevation and 120 rounds per gun. Range and deflection receivers were Barr and Stroud, and not F.T.P..^[5]

Other Guns

• One 3-in H.A. 20 cwt Mark III with 100 rounds.^[6]

In 1918, it was ordered that the Scott class flotilla leaders and destroyers of "V" and "W" classes should have range and deflection receivers for their 3-in H.A. guns and fire gongs worked off the firing key used for the ships' L.A. weaponry.^[7]

Torpedoes

• Two twin 21-in tubes on the centre line enjoying 50° arcs centered on the beam.^[8]

In mid-1920, it was ordered that "S", "V" and "W" class destroyers should be allocated the 21-in Mark IV* torpedo.^[9]

Fire Control

Mid 1916 Outfit

Experiments from February with two Grand Fleet destroyers employing dumaresqs and Vickers Range Clocks and voicepipes showed definite advantages over ships using unaided spotting and voicepipes, even when the crews had no special training in the new equipment. Tests were also conducted to find a rangefinder suitable to the lively and cramped platform that destroyers provided. This led to an order on 3 April, 1916 that each T.B.D. of "M" class and later should be equipped with:^[10][11]

• one Waymouth-Cooke sextant rangefinder
• one Vickers Clock
• one Dumaresq
• range and deflection receivers at each gun

Two ratings, trained before coming aboard, were added to the crew to work the equipment. The clocks and rangefinders were issued in the following three months, and the dumaresqs a few months later. The data instruments did not become available in numbers until 1917. By mid-1917, the whole system was broadly in place in the destroyers of the Grand Fleet and in the Harwich Force.^[12]

Directors

Firing Circuits^[13]

Training and Slewing Circuits^[14]

In 1917, it was approved that the "V" class and later destroyers should all receive installations of the British Destroyer Director Firing System,^[15] but no installations were completed before February, 1918, but subsequent to that month, all units being completed had training systems in place upon completion and from May they had their mechanical elevating gear in place.^[16][17]

The Director Firing Handbook, 1917 reports that they were to receive Small Type Training Receivers of pattern number 20 on #1, #2 guns, and pattern number 21 on #3 and #4.^[18]

In 1918, it was ordered that those destroyers with director installations were to additionally receive:^[19]

• a voice pipe from T.S. to director
• a fire gong at director worked from existing push in T.S.
• a fire gong push on fore bridge to be added, wired in parallel to that in the T.S.
• the repeat receivers on the fore bridge were to be positioned so as to be visible to the director sightsetter.

Torpedo Control

Torpedo Control Circuits "V" class^[20]

The "V" class had entirely electrical instruments in all vessels.

Flotilla leaders and "S", "W" and "V" class destroyers had nearly identical torpedo control facilities, with sighting positions on both sides of a bridge that had been enlarged from earlier classes with firing pushes and keys for sounding buzzers at the tubes. The order and deflection transmitters were situated centrally on a panel on the bridge, between the two sights.^[21]

Alterations

A 9-foot rangefinder and two hydraulic releases for depth charges were added to the bridge at some point.^[22] After the war, the twin torpedo tubes were replaced with triple mounts as in the "W" class vessels.^[23]

By November 1918, those ships operating with the Twentieth Destroyer Flotilla (Vanoc, Vanquisher and Venturous) were fitted to carry 44 mines, apparently of the "H" and "M" variety. Those with the Eleventh Destroyer Flotilla were also equipped, but with "M" type sinkers: Vivacious with 40 mines and Versatile, Vittoria, Vortigern and Vancouver with 74.

Venetia and Vesper serving with the Thirteenth Destroyer Flotilla and Velox at Dover also could carry 74 "M" sinkers. The torpedo tubes and guns removed when the mines were shipped could be placed back aboard with enough notice.^[24]

See Also

Footnotes

Bibliography