Difference between revisions of "Category:Destroyer Class (UK)"

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Revision as of 15:00, 26 May 2019

British destroyers were initially built in a hodge-podge fashion as Britain, and her shipbuilders, tried to quickly determine the best design practices to produce the optimum weapons platform.

Early T.B.Ds.: 1894-1904

The first British destroyers were small vessels built in a great variety of designs featuring little freeboard and a turtleback hull. Armament consisted of a pair of single 18-in torpedo tubes and a modest gun armament centered on a 12-pdr on a forward platform before a tiny bridge. Coal-burning boilers driving a Vertical Triple Expansion engine produced unreliable performance, particularly during high speed operation.

Although it was measured under conditions that were highly unrealistic, speed was the early design emphasis for British T.B.Ds.. Twnety-six (soon twenty-seven) knots was mandated new ships, with financial penalties or outright rejection being charged for units that failed to make the specified standard performance. Conversely, ships which exceeded the benchmark could earn the manufacturer a bounty and increase the odds of future orders. The first of the 26- and 27-knotters were launched in 1894, and units built to this level of performance continued to appear until late in the 1890s. A total of forty-two were eventually constructed.

The ships were soon made obsolete by later designs. In 1912, the fifteen 26 and 27 knotters that remained in service were re-classified as the "A" Class torpedoboat destroyers even though they differed considerably in their details. Some seven would survive to 1920.

The nominal speed requirement for new destroyers was raised to 30 knots around 1895. Production continued in much the same manner as before, drawing upon the competitive energies of design and construction efficiency of the firms of Thornycroft, Palmer, Earle's, John Brown and many others. In 1912, these many variations were re-grouped into the "B" class (twenty-two ships with four funnels), "C" class (thirty-six with three funnels) and "D" class (ten ships with two funnels and the similar H.M.S. Taku, which had been captured in China).