C-Class (1912)

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flag
Palmer's "30 knotters" and C class
HMS Flirt, sunk by German torpedo boats in 1916
HMS Flirt , sunk by German torpedo boats in 1916
Overview
Type destroyer
units 40
Shipyard

8 Thomson-> J Brown
8 Palmers Shipbuilding
5 Vickers
3 Doxford
6 Fairfield
7 Hawthorn Leslie
2 Earle's Shipbuilding
1 John I. Thornycroft

Keel laying October 1895 to 1902
Launch July 1896 to 1902
Commissioning from June 1897
Whereabouts 4 losses 1901,1904,1908,1909
7 losses in World War
1916 to 1922 scrapped
Technical specifications
the Palmer boats
displacement

390 tn; Max. 440 tn

length

67.1 m above sea level (215 ft)
65.5 m pp.

width

6.37 m (17.5 ft)

Draft

2.97 m (6 ft)

crew

58-63 men

drive

4 reed boilers,
2 4-cylinder triple expansion machines ,
5900 HP, 2 shafts

speed

30  kn

Range

3000 nm at 10 kn / 95 t coal

Armament

1 × 12 pounder 76 mm L / 40 MK.I gun
5 × 57 mm / L40 6pdr cannons
2 × 18 inch torpedo tubes

Budget 1895/1896

Star, Whiting, Bat, Crane, Camois, Flying Fish

Budget 1896/1897

Fawn, flirt

other shipyards

26 boats

Speculative buildings

3 boats

Experimental boats

1 “33 knotter”
2 turbine boats

The C-class of the Royal Navy , formed in the summer of 1912, comprised the boats with three funnels from the 74 torpedo boat destroyers of the “30-knotter” class delivered from 1897 to 1904 and corresponding “specials”.

The four-chimney came into the newly formed B-class , the two-chimney into the D-class .

Of the 40 boats built in 1912, 36 still existed. The test boat for turbine propulsion Viper was lost in 1901. In 1904 the Chamois sank off Greece, in 1908 the Tiger after colliding with the armored cruiser HMS Berwick and in 1909 the Lee ran aground on the west coast of Ireland and was lost. In 1914, the two boats still in use in East Asia were to be sold for demolition, which was not done for the time being because of the outbreak of war.

In the First World War, seven destroyers of the C-Class were lost. The remaining boats were scrapped between 1916 and 1921.

Building history

What the boats had in common was their basic layout, such as the “turtleback” forecastle, the target maximum speed, the three funnels and the armament. Most of the three-chimney boats were delivered with eight each by the Palmers shipyards in Jarrow on Tyne and J. & G. Thomson, later John Brown in Clydebank . Another seven came from Hawthorn Leslie in Hebburn on the Tyne, although the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in nearby Wallsend was the contractor for the two test boats with turbine propulsion ( Viper , Velox ) and the shipyard only supplied the hulls. Six boats were built at the Fairfield shipyard in Govan , five at Vickers in Barrow , three at Doxford in Sunderland , two at Earle's Shipbuilding in Hull and one boat at John I. Thornycroft in the London borough of Chiswick with the test boat HMS Albatross for a 33 kn Destroyer. In addition to this boat, Thornycroft supplied ten two-chimney “30 knotters”, which formed the D-class in 1912 , Palmers then supplied seven four-chimney stacks for the boats mentioned, Brown one test four-chimney “33 knotter” and Earle one Four-chimney "30 knotter".

HMS Lightning , one of Palmers' first 27 knots destroyers

The first boats were started in October 1895 at J. & G. Thomson in Clydebank and the following year the other shipyards also began building their first boats. In 1896 the first 10 boats were launched and in 1897 the first three boats were delivered by Palmers to the Royal Navy. Palmers had already built battleships and cruisers for the Navy and also delivered “27-knotter” torpedo boat destroyers with three Janus- type boats , which were considered extremely seaworthy. The shipyard in Jarrow delivered eight boats ordered in 1895 and 1896 between June 1897 and April 1899, which were followed by seven four-chimney.

Not all shipyards were equally successful. The boats of some shipyards had difficulties reaching the required maximum speed. Thomson had to modify his boats and the delivery of the boats that had started first was delayed until July 1900. By March 1902 all standard boats were in service, hardly differing in size and length. Only Thornycroft's failed attempt to build a 33 knot destroyer with the Albatross was significantly longer at 227 feet (69.4 m) and also displaced more. The 7500 hp machine only allowed 31.5 knots. The second turbine boat in the class, the Velox , which only started in April 1901 , was also somewhat larger and was not delivered until February 1904.

Mission history

The first major public appearance of the new boats took place on June 26, 1897, when the Whiting completed by Palmer alongside the first four-chimney "30-knot" completed by Laird, the Quail , Sparrowhawk , Trasher and Virago and the Thornycroft two-chimney "30" knottern “ Desperate , Fame and Foam took part in the fleet parade in honor of the Diamond Jubilee of the British Queen Victoria on the Spithead .

The Russian Taku ex Hai Hola

The Whiting , which was the first three chimney to be completed, then moved together with the Thornycroft boat Fame to the China Station, where both boats remained until the end of their service lives. These two boats then carried out one of the first military operations when they occupied four Chinese Schichau destroyers during the attack on the Taku forts during the Boxer Uprising in China on June 17, 1900 , which were later distributed among the intervention forces. so that at times there was a destroyer named Taku in the British, French, Russian and German navies . The former Hai Lung became HMS Taku . The boats were awarded the Battle Honor "China 1900" for their service in front of Taku . The gains for the China Station, the finished straight Vickers went Otter in 1900 to China and remained there until the end of their period of service during the revolution in China in 1911 was the Whiting on the Yangtze inter alia Nanking and Hankow .

The first losses in the class occurred in 1901 when the two test boats for turbine propulsion, the Viper and Cobra , were lost within a few weeks.

The three-chimney boats, which were gradually delivered by the various shipyards, served in the British destroyer flotillas at home. The majority of the boats were never used abroad, but a larger number of the 30 knotters were stationed in the Mediterranean. In 1900 the Albatross, which had just been completed by Thornycroft, was relocated to the Mediterranean, but returned home the following summer due to problems with the propulsion system. After rectifying these, it returned to the Mediterranean fleet in 1902 and remained there until 1913. 1901/1902 relocated also the Palmer boats Bat, Flying Fish, Chamois, Crane and Fawn there, to stay there for several years.

HMS Chamois

The Chamois was lost during its mission in the Mediterranean on September 26, 1904, when it lost a propeller blade on a high-speed voyage in the Gulf of Patras and the shaft continued to rotate at high speed, unbalanced, causing strong vibrations that tore off its bearings and caused a large leak in the Hull created. The boat sank near the coast and the crew was completely rescued.

HMS Berwick

On April 2, 1908, the next serious accident of a three-chimney occurred when the Tiger , which had been used since its commissioning in 1901 with the Portsmouth Flotilla of the Home Fleet , took part in a fleet exercise in the canal . The boat, built in Clydebank, was one of the attacking torpedo boats when she ran in front of the bow of the armored cruiser HMS Berwick in the early evening 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight . The cruiser cut the small destroyer, the bow section of which sank immediately. 22 men were recovered from the stern section, which had been floating for a while. The commander and 27 other crew members could not be saved.

Before the First World War and before the introduction of the C-Class, the Lee built by Doxford was lost on October 5, 1909 . The boat ran aground off Blacksod Bay on the west coast of Ireland . The crew was largely saved.

In the summer of 1912, the Royal Navy reclassified its destroyers into lettered classes. The 74 torpedo boat destroyers of the “30-knotter” class delivered from 1897 to 1904 and “Specials” built by some shipyards during this time were divided into three classes according to the number of their chimneys. The C-Class of the Royal Navy included the original 40 boats with three chimneys of which were still present 36th The four-chimney came into the newly formed B -class , the two-chimney into the D-class .

War effort

HMS TB 30 of the Cricket class

At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the boats of the class were entrusted with subordinate tasks or were in the reserve. From the test mobilization in July 1914, the boats were in their ports of operation and were assigned to the units that were to monitor the British coasts. The main users of the boats were four units: the 6th, 7th and 8th destroyer flotilla, which provided escort services in the North Sea and the canal and monitored the coasts, and the Nore Local Defense Flotilla in the Thames estuary. There were also smaller units with more local tasks.

6. Destroyer Flotilla

The 6th Destroyer Flotilla in Dover at the beginning of the war consisted of three scout cruisers, 11 destroyers of the Tribal class and 12 "30-knotter", of which nine (the Fairfield boats Leven, Falcon and Gipsy , the Palmer boats Crane, Fawn and Flirt as well as the Hawthorn boats Mermaid, Racehorse and Greyhound ) belonged to the C class and three to the B class. All nine C-boats were awarded the Battle Honor Belgian Coast . The 6th Flotilla was primarily intended to prevent German units from entering the canal.

The Falcon and the B-Class Syren came under fire from a German land battery in Westende on October 28, 1914 on a search for German submarines off the Belgian coast . It was hit by a 21 cm grenade that killed eight men (including the commander), but could be brought to Dunkirk and repaired.

On the night of October 26th to 27th, 1916, the Imperial Navy attacked the British security units at the Dover Barrier with their torpedo boats of the Marine Corps Flanders, which were now reinforced with five semi-flotillas . When the foremost guard line on the anti-submarine network came under fire from the German units, the Flirt intervened as the only destroyer already at sea and was sunk by the Germans. 58 men died on the old destroyer. Only the nine men of a boat that had been sent to support a wounded guard ship survived. The loss of the Flirt was the third loss of a C-class destroyer and the one with the highest casualty rate. The German torpedo boat advance and after the sinking of the Flirt developing naval combat is called by the British as "1st Battle of Dover Strait".

On November 24, 1917, the German submarine U 48 ran aground at the Goodwin Sands and was discovered by British guard vehicles under the Gipsy . The following battle ended with the submarines scuttling themselves at position 51 ° 11'N 01 ° 31'E; 17 survivors were rescued by the British.

On January 26, 1918, the Leven discovered the periscope of a submarine on a courier voyage between Dover and Dunkirk, which was attacked with depth charges at position 51 ° 03'N 01 ° 46'E. A seaman could be rescued from the sea who identified the sunk submarine as UB 35 before he died on the Leven . On April 1, 1918, the 6th Flotilla lost the destroyer Falcon in a collision with a Royal Navy trawler. (5th Loss of a C-class boat in World War II)

At the end of the war, the 6th destroyer flotilla had seven flotilla commanders and more than 30 destroyers, some of them modern; of the C-Class only the Leven , the Gipsy , the Racehorse and, since May 1918, the Violet remained.

7. Destroyer Flotilla

The 7th Destroyer Flotilla in Devonport initially had 21 old destroyers and twelve cricket- class torpedo boats . Nine of the destroyers belonged to the C-class in 1914 with the Bullfinch and Dove built by Earle , the Sylvia and Violet from Doxford, the Vickers boats Avon , Leopard and Vixen , the Thorn bought by John Brown and the single boat Albatross built by Thornycroft . In September the flotilla moved to the Humber , where it remained until the end of the war.

HMS Fairy , the class's final war loss

In service with the 7th Destroyer Flotilla, the C-class destroyers lost the Fairy built at Fairfield on May 31, 1918 at position 53 ° 57'N 00 ° 09'W. The boat, which has been in service with the flotilla since July 1917, secured a convoy north of the Humber, which was attacked by the German submarine UC 75 . The submarine, which had already been rammed by a freighter, had to appear in the middle of the convoy and tried to continue its attack when it was rammed and sunk again by the Fairy . Two men from the submarine were able to escape to the foredeck of the Fairy . However, the old destroyer was badly damaged by the ram and sank too. Its crew could be recovered. It was the last loss of a C-class boat.

On September 29, 1918, the Star sank together with the Ouse of the River class with depth charges the German submarine UB 115 off Sunderland a little northeast of Beacon Point near Newton-by-the-Sea, which sank with 39 men. The flotilla last known as the "East Coast Forces" had 26 destroyers, including Bat, Bullfinch, Crane, Fawn, Flying Fish, Greyhound *, Leopard, Mermaid, Star and Sylvia, as well as 10 C-class boats.

8. Destroyer Flotilla

The HMS Cheerful, lost in 1917

The 8th Destroyer Flotilla in Chatham began the war effort with thirteen old destroyers of the “B” , “D” and “C” class (8 boats Star *, Bat * and Flying Fish * from Palmers, Cheerful from Hawthorn, Fairy *, Osprey and Ostrich from Fairfield and after the outbreak of war also Vigilant from J. Brown) and twelve torpedo boats of the cricket class. As early as autumn 1914, the flotilla moved to Scotland and also secured the berths for the units of the Grand Fleet.

In service with the 8th Flotilla, the Cheerful was lost on June 30, 1917 off the Shetland Islands at position 60 ° 02'N 01 ° 07'W when she ran into a mine laid by the German submarine UC 33 . When the fourth C-Class destroyer went down in World War I, 44 crew members died.

When the 8th destroyer flotilla was disbanded in March 1918, there was no longer any C-class boat; the flotilla had only two old destroyers and ten cricket- class boats .

Nore Local Defense Flotilla

HMS Recruit , the first British destroyer sunk by a submarine

A large unit to secure the Thames estuary was the "Nore Local Defense Flotilla" with eleven old destroyers and twelve torpedo boats of the cricket class as well as eight older torpedo boats. Four of the destroyers belonged to the C-class with Brazen, Electra, Kestrel and Recruit .

On May 1, 1915, the first German submarine UB 6 from the newly formed U-Flotilla Flanders sank a British destroyer with the Recruit . The Recruit was on a control voyage with the sister boat Brazen in the southern North Sea 30 nm southwest of the lightship Galloper off the Thames estuary. The destroyer broke in two pieces after the torpedo hit. 39 men died on it and 26 castaways were rescued.

At the end of the war, the "Nore Local Defense Flotilla" had thirteen torpedo boats, one gunboat, seven barges and six old destroyers, including the Electra and Vixen of the C-class. This flotilla also included the Albatross and Ostrich stationed in Lowestoft .

Further war losses and missions

The HMS Velox , the 3rd British turbine destroyer

The Velox , the third British destroyer with turbine propulsion, was in service with the Portsmouth Local Defense Flotilla. On October 25, the boat ran at the lightship Nab at the entrance to the Solent on a mine laid by the UC 5 submarine under Herbert Pustkuchen and sank at the position 50 ° 41'N 01 ° 20'W, with only 4 men of the crew lost Life came.

The "Devonport Local Defense Flotilla" in the west had eight older torpedo boats and four torpedo boat destroyers, including the Roebuck and Bittern of the C-class , at the start of the war . The built at Hawthorn Roebuck remained there as a training boat for cadets until the war ended with the even older destroyers opossum and Sunfish of the A-Class .

The Bittern , built in Barrow, was overrun on April 4, 1918 by the steamer Kenilworth off the Isle of Portland in fog and sank with the entire crew

The 2nd Flotilla in Londonderry , equipped with newer destroyers, also had four old torpedo boat destroyers at the end of the war, including the Osprey and Thorn of the C-class.

The mid-war Irish Sea Hunting Flotilla was the largest unit of this type with eleven old destroyers. The Avon and the Kestrel of the C-Class were used here , primarily to prevent support for the Irish rebels.

When the war began, the Whiting and Otter of the C-Class were deployed abroad at the China Station. The planned sale of the boats did not take place at the start of the war. However, the station used newer river-class boats as service boats, which were relocated to the Mediterranean in late 1914 / early 1915. Five old torpedo boat destroyers remained, of which the formerly Chinese Taku and the Otter were discarded in 1916. Whiting of the C, Virago of the B and Fame of the D class remained in service as guard boats in Hong Kong until the end of the war.

Final fate

The boats no longer used in the surveillance flotillas served in local, smaller security units until the end of the war. After the war ended, all boats were decommissioned and sold for demolition until 1921.

The C-Class boats

Surname Shipyard Keel laying Launch in service Final fate
star Palmers 03/23/1896 08/11/1896 9.1898 June 1919 for demolition
Whiting Palmers 04/13/1896 08/26/1896 6.1897 November 1919 for demolition
Bat Palmers 05/28/1896 October 7, 1896 8.1897 August 1919 for demolition
Chamois Palmers 05/28/1896 11/9/1896 11.1897 capsized on September 26, 1904 after a propeller blade punched a hole in the hull
Crane Palmers 2.08.1896 12/17/1896 4.1898 June 1919 for demolition
Flying fish Palmers August 9, 1896 4.03.1897 6.1898 August 1919 for demolition
Fawn Palmers 5.09.1896 04/13/1897 12.1898 July 1919 for demolition
flirt Palmers 5.09.1896 05/15/1897 4.1899 Sunk on October 27, 1916 by German destroyers of the 6th half flotilla ( S 55 , S 53 , S 54 , G 42 , V 70 , G 91 ) at the Doversperre, 58 dead
Violet Doxford 07/13/1896 3.05.1897 6.1898 June 1920 for demolition
Sylvia Doxford 07/13/1896 3.07.1897 1.1899 July 1919 for demolition
lee Doxford 4.01.1898 01/27/1899 3.1901 Accumulated and sunk near Blacksod Bay on October 5, 1909
Gipsy Fairfield 1.10.1896 March 9, 1897 7.1898 March 1921 for demolition, used as a pontoon for a long time
Fairy Fairfield October 19, 1896 09/25/1897 5.1908 Sank in the North Sea on May 31, 1918 after sinking UC 75
Osprey Fairfield 11/14/1896 April 7, 1897 7.1898 November 1919 for demolition
Leven Fairfield 01/24/1898 06/28/1898 7.1899 September 1920 for demolition
Falcon Fairfield 06/28/1899 12/29/1899 12.1901 sunk on April 1, 1918 after collision
Ostrich Fairfield 06/28/1899 March 22, 1900 12.1901 April 1920 for demolition
Avon Vickers 02/17/1896 10/10/1896 2.1899 July 1920 for demolition
Bitter Vickers 02/18/1896 1.02.1897 4.1899 sunk in front of the Portland Bill on April 4, 1918 after collision with SS Kenilworth , 75 dead (?)
otter Vickers 6/9/1896 11/23/1896 3.1900 October 1916 in Hong Kong for demolition
leopard Vickers 06/10/1896 03/20/1897 7.1899 June 1919 for demolition
Vixen Vickers September 7, 1899 March 29, 1900 3.1902 March 1921 for demolition
Cheerful Hawthorn September 7, 1896 07/14/1897 2.1900 Sunk off the Shetland Islands after being hit by a mine on June 30, 1917 , 44 dead
Mermaid Hawthorn September 7, 1896 02/22/1898 6.1908 July 1919 for demolition
Greyhound Hawthorn 07/18/1899 10/6/1900 01.1902 June 1920 for demolition
Racehorse Hawthorn October 23, 1899 November 8, 1900 3.1902 March 1920 for demolition
Roebuck Hawthorn October 2, 1899 4.01.1901 03.1902 Scrapped in 1919
Brazen J. & G. Thomson October 18, 1895 3.07.1896 7.1900 November 1919 for demolition
Electra J & G Thomson October 18, 1895 07/14/1896 7.1900 April 1920 for demolition
Recruit J & G Thomson October 18, 1895 08/22/1896 10.1900 Sunk in the Thames estuary by UB 6 on May 1, 1915 , 39 dead
Vulture J & G Thomson 11/26/1895 March 22, 1898 5.1900 May 1919 for demolition
Kestrel J & G Thomson 2.09.1896 03/25/1898 3.1910 March 1921 for demolition
Thorn J. Brown & Co 03/17/1900 6.1901 Scrapped in 1919
tiger J. Brown May 19, 1900 6.1901 Sunk on April 2nd, 1908 after collision with HMS Berwick off St. Catherine's Point , 28 dead
Vigilante J. Brown 08/16/1900 6.1901 February 1920 for demolition
Bullfinch Earle 09/17/1896 02/10/1898 6.1901 June 1919 for demolition
Dove Earle 09/17/1896 03/21/1898 7.1901 January 1920 for demolition
viper Hawthorn 1898 September 6, 1899 1900 Accumulated and sunk on August 3, 1901 near Alderney
Velox
(ex- Python )		 Hawthorn 1.04.1901 02/11/1902 2.1904 Sank on October 25, 1915 at the lightship Nab after being hit by a mine, 4 dead
Albatross Thornycroft 11/27/1896 07/19/1898 7.1900 June 1920 for demolition

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Whiting , 1896 on Naval Database
  2. ^ Quail , 1895 on Naval Database
  3. ^ Sparrowhawk , 1895 on Naval Database
  4. ^ Trasher , 1895 on Naval Database
  5. ^ Virago , 1895 on Naval Database
  6. ^ Desperate, 1896 on Naval Database
  7. ↑ a b HMS Fame at the Naval Database website
  8. ^ HMS Foam at the Naval Database
  9. ^ A Naval Disaster - The Chamois Sinks In: The Advertiser , September 29, 1904, in Trove - Digitized papers and more
  10. ↑ Torpedo Destroyer Lost. HM S. Chamois Founders During a Speed ​​Trial. The Crew Saved The Bendigo Advertiser, September 29, 1904, in Trove - Digitized papers and more
  11. ^ Battle Honor Belgian Coast
  12. ↑ Dead of the Falcon
  13. ↑ Dead of Flirt
  14. ^ Herzog: German U-Boats, p. 89
  15. ↑ Herzog, p. 93
  16. ^ Lyon: First Destroyers , p. 89
  17. ↑ 6th DF on dreadnoughtproject
  18. ↑ sinking of UC 75
  19. ↑ UB 115  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / uboat.net  
  20. ↑ 7th DF on dreadnoughtproject
  21. ^ Downfall of the HMS Cheerful
  22. ↑ Sacrifice on the Cheerful
  23. ↑ 8th DF on dreadnoughtproject
  24. ↑ Loss of HMS Recruit  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / uboat.net  
  25. ↑ Nore LDF ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on dreadnoughtproject  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dreadnoughtproject.org
  26. ↑ a b Distribution of destroyers in the Royal Navy, 1918
  27. ↑ sinking of the HMS Velox
  28. ↑ List of 75 victims
  29. ↑ Wrecksite, the death toll of 63 given
  30. ↑ Major Warships Sunk in World War 1 1916

literature

  • Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allen (1983), ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
  • Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War , Seaforth Publishing (Barnsley 2009), ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
  • David Lyon: The First Destroyers . Chatham Publishing, 1996, ISBN 1-86176-005-1 .
  • TD Manning: The British Destroyer , Putnam 1961
  • Antony Preston: Destroyers , Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0
  • Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , Conway Maritime Press (1985), 72f.
  • Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I (Ed. John Moore), Studio (London 1990), ISBN 1-85170-378-0 .

Web links

Commons : C Class Destroyers (1912)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files