Daring class (1893)
Daring class | |
---|---|
The HMS Daring |
|
Overview | |
Type | destroyer |
Shipyard | |
Keel laying | 1892 |
Launch | August 12, 1893 |
Commissioning | January 1894 |
Whereabouts | Sold for demolition April 10, 1912 |
Technical specifications | |
displacement |
260 tn |
length |
56.4 m (185 ft) |
width |
5.9 m (19.5 ft) |
Draft |
2.1 m (7 ft) |
crew |
46-53 men |
drive |
3 water tube boilers |
speed |
27 kn |
Armament |
1 × 76 mm / L40-12pdr-12 cwt cannon |
Boats of the class |
Daring , Decoy |
procured at the same time |
Havock / Hornet (Yarrow), |
The Daring class (1893) was a ship class of torpedo boat destroyers of the Royal Navy before the First World War . She consisted of the two ships HMS Daring and HMS Decoy . They were also known as "27-Knotters".
Development and construction history
The Royal Navy saw the other navies' torpedo boats as a significant threat to their battle fleet. To counter this threat, the Royal Navy has been developing defense ships for years. However, the torpedo cannon boats developed and procured by it had so far not met expectations, as their speed was insufficient to intercept modern torpedo boats. In 1892, the new Third Sea Lord , Rear Admiral Jackie Fisher, ordered six boats from shipyards that had experience in torpedo boat construction, which should have almost the same speed as possible attackers, were equipped with sufficient rapid-fire cannons to repel torpedo boats and were better seaworthy than those up to then own torpedo boats procured. Three shipyards received the first orders for these boats, first known as "torpedo boat catchers", which were soon called "torpedo boat destroyers" .
The Admiralty left the detailed construction of these orders to the shipyards. Yarrow & Co. in Poplar built the Havock and the Hornet , of which the Havock was the first British destroyer to be completed. Laird Brothers in Birkenhead built the Ferret and Lynx and the London shipyard John I. Thornycroft & Co. in Chiswick also built the Daring (keel laid as BauNr. 287 in July 1892) and Decoy (BauNr. 288). The six boats were often grouped together as the "26-knotter" according to their required top speed. Thornycroft was not only involved in building the first British destroyers. The shipyard built over 70 destroyers for the Royal Navy by the end of World War I and was the most important supplier of this type of ship. Thornycroft also built a number of boats for the navies of other states.
Both ships of the Daring class were 56.5 m long and displaced 260 tons. Their Thornycroft steam boilers generated an output of 4,200 hp and gave them a speed of 27 knots . The Daring even reached 28.21 knots in its tests on the Maplin Sands near Southend and was for a while considered the 'fastest boat in the world', with 28.25 knots reported. The armament consisted of a 76 mm gun , three 57 mm guns and three torpedo tubes , one on the bow and two on a rotatable mount behind the two funnels. The torpedo tube in the bow of the boats was removed later, as its use was very weather-dependent and the boats ran the risk of overflowing their own torpedo at higher speeds. The boats had, like all British destroyers up to the turn of the century, a curved front deck, which was called "turtleback" (turtle back). This bow shape did not meet expectations, as the boats took over a lot of water when the sea was rough, as they literally bored into the waves when the sea was rough.
Further development
With the next orders, the Royal Navy increased the maximum speed to be achieved to 27 knots and ordered 36 boats based on the revised requirements. Thornycroft was again one of the first contractors and built three boats according to the new tender ( Ardent class ). The shipyard then delivered eleven of the "30-knottern" (74 boats) advertised immediately afterwards: ten two-chimney boats, which later formed the D-class , and the single HMS Albatross with three chimneys.
The first British destroyers ( 26-knotters )
Surname | shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | completion | fate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
HMS Havock | Yarrow & Co. | 1.07.1892 | 08/12/1893 | 1.1894 | deleted 14.05.1912 |
HMS Hornet | Yarrow & Co. | 1.07.1892 | 12/13/1893 | 7.1894 | deleted October 12, 1909 |
HMS Daring | John I. Thornycroft & Co. | 1.07.1892 | 11/25/1893 | 2.1895 | deleted 04/10/1912 |
HMS Decoy | John I. Thornycroft & Co. | 1.07.1892 | April 7, 1894 | 6.1895 | sunk 13.08.1904 |
HMS Ferret | Laird Brothers | 1.07.1892 | 12/9/1893 | 3.1895 | canceled in 1910, sunk as a target ship in 1911 |
HMS Lynx | Laird Brothers | 1.07.1892 | 01/24/1894 | 3.1895 | deleted 04/10/1912 |
literature
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allen 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
- David Lyon: The First Destroyers , 1996, ISBN 1-84067-364-8
- TD Manning: The British Destroyer , Putnam 1961
- Antony Preston: Destroyers , Hamlyn, ISBN 0-60032955-0