HMS Afridi (1907)
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 The Afridi |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong-Whitworth , Newcastle-Elswick Building no. 777 |
| Keel laying | August 10, 1906 |
| Launch | May 8, 1907 |
| Namesake | the Afghan tribe of the Afridi |
| Commissioning | September 10, 1909 |
| Whereabouts | Scrapped in 1919 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
886 t, max. 992 t |
| length |
80.31 m (259 ft 3.25 in) |
| width |
7.62 m (25 ft 7 in) |
| Draft |
2.29 m (7.5 ft) |
| crew |
65 men |
| drive |
5 Yarrow boilers , |
| speed |
33 kn , 3 screws |
| Range |
3000 nm at 13.5 kn |
| Armament |
5 - 12 pdr guns (76 mm L / 40) |
| Fuel supply |
188 ts of oil |
HMS Afridi was one of a total of twelve tribal class destroyers of the British Royal Navy , the first British class of turbine-propelled oil-fired destroyers. During the First World War she was used in the English Channel . The Afridi , the first ship of the Royal Navy of this name, received battle honors for operations off the Belgian coast ( Belgian Coast 1916-17 ) and for the attack on Ostend ( Zeebrugge 1918 ). In 1919 it was sold for demolition.
history
The Afridi was part of the Royal Navy's first order for five Tribal-class destroyers. The orders for four of the boats went to shipyards that built destroyers on a regular basis. The Afridi was ordered from the Armstrong-Whitworth shipyard in Elswick , which was one of the most important British warship builders, but had only built four destroyers so far. The last of these was the unfortunate turbine destroyer HMS Cobra , which was lost after a short period of service. With the small cruiser Amethyst, which was completed in 1905, the shipyard had also built the first larger turbine-powered warship. In addition to the Afridi , the first British battle cruiser , HMS Invincible , was built at Armstrong-Whitworth . The ship began in April 1906, the first example of this new type of ship ran on 13 April 1907 by stack and was completed on 15 March 1909th
The requirements of the Admiralty for the new destroyers left a lot of space for the manufacturers' plans, which, however , had to be accepted by the Director of Naval Construction before the final order was placed. The destroyers had to reach a maximum speed of 33 knots (kn), and a cruising range of 1,500 nautical miles (nm) was required when cruising. The new buildings should also be able to run their maximum speed of eight hours. The drive was prescribed by oil-fired steam turbines , and marching turbines should enable the required range. Another fixed requirement was a freeboard of 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) at the bow .
Armstrong decided on three short chimneys and five Yarrow water tube boilers for the steam supply of the Parsons turbines in order to generate 14,250 PS (10,630 kW), which should give the boat the required 33 kn top speed via three shafts with one propeller each. According to the tender, the armament should consist of two to three twelve-pounder cannons (3 inch, 76 mm) of the older, light version "12 cwt gun" in order to save money. There were also two 18-in (450 mm) torpedo tubes, for which the boat also had two reserve torpedoes on board. Armstrong installed two 12-pounder guns side by side on the forecastle and the third gun on the stern. Already during the construction it became clear that the armament of the boats was too light, so that from the two boats ordered in 1906/07 all newbuildings were armed with two 4-inch-102-mm cannons. For the first five boats, the decision was made in October 1908 to set up two additional 12-pounder guns. This rearmament took place on the Afridi before it was handed over to the Royal Navy.
The keel laying of Afridi made on Armstrong's shipyard in Elswick in August 1906 and the launching on 8 May 1907. The trials showed many problems. The turbines and propellers were unsatisfactory and had to be improved. In addition, extremely bad weather and some strikes caused considerable delays in completion. It was not until February 1909 that the Afridi was able to successfully complete the required speed tests when it reached 33.25 kn (61.58 km / h; 38.26 mph) over six hours. In order to achieve this speed, the machine output is said to have been increased to 21,000 PS (16,000 kW).
Calls
On September 10, 1909, the Afridi was finally accepted by the Royal Navy 26 months after the originally agreed delivery date. The other four boats of the first order had been delivered by December 1908, and the two boats of the first and the Nubian of the second supplementary order had already been delivered. It was the last destroyer built by Armstrong, as the shipyard did not build another destroyer until the end of its independence in 1927.
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The Afridi came to the other boats of the class in the "1st Destroyer Flotilla" (1st Destroyer Flotilla). The flotilla was working with the most modern battleships of the Home Fleet together and consisted of the flotilla Swift , the Tribal destroyers and thirteen destroyers of the River class . In addition there were the new Boadicea as a flagship and the two Spähkreuzer (Scouts) Adventure and Pathfinder as well as the old cruiser Blenheim as a residential and storage ship. Twelve newer Beagle class destroyers replaced the River class boats in 1911, and the Patrol and the new Blanche replaced the previous Scouts.
After the arrival of more modern boats to the fleet, the Afridi came with the other Tribal destroyers in 1912 to the "4th Destroyer Flotilla" stationed in Portsmouth , where they were marked with the letter "F" on the bow in October, since the class was officially an F-class was designated. In February 1914, the boats of the class moved to Dover because their range was too short to be used effectively as deep-sea boats with the fleet. The boats of the tribal class came there to the newly formed "6th Destroyer Flotilla".
War missions
When the First World War broke out , the 6th Flotilla formed the core of the “Dover Patrol”, and the Afridi remained in this service until the end of the war. The flotilla still included the three scout cruisers Adventure , Attentive and Foresight and twelve old "30-knotter" torpedo boat destroyers of the B and C class . In autumn the small cruiser HMS Sapphire joined the flotilla. In addition to the tribals, the other flotilla members also changed from and to other flotillas. In the spring of 1915, some destroyers River class and came torpedo boats of the Cricket class for dressing. From November 1915 to April 1918, the seaplane carrier Riviera , a former canal ferry, also belonged to the 6th DF.
In December 1916, the Broke of the Faulknor class was the first modern flotilla leader to join the flotilla. With five Acasta-class boats, more modern destroyers came to the flotilla for the first time, which then happened again and again to varying degrees until the end of the war. In August 1918 the flotilla consisted of seven flotilla commanders, 33 destroyers (including seven each of the tribal class and seven of the old torpedo boat destroyers), two torpedo boats of the cricket class, twelve patrol boats , thirteen monitors , four wheel-drive minesweepers and a coastal armored ship .
The Afridi performed numerous routine patrols during their service. On March 24, 1916, she was one of the destroyers dispatched to rescue the Sussex canal ferry torpedoed by UB 29 . There were no Americans among the dead, but as several American passengers were injured, this sparked protests in the United States , which led to a heated exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Germany.
When the Imperial Navy moved larger torpedo boats with 105 mm guns to Flanders , the Royal Navy strengthened the main artillery of the “Dover patrol” security destroyers. This is how the tribal destroyers Afridi and Viking were re- armed: between April and October 1917 , the Afridi received two 4.7-inch (120-mm) rapid-fire cannons for their 12-pounder . For this, the boat received a two-pounder- "pom-pom" - automatic cannon for anti-aircraft and a Maxim gun . The other twelve-pounder tribals Cossack , Mohawk and Tartar only received the automatic cannons for anti- aircraft defense.
On 22./23. April 1918, the Afridi took part in the first raid against the German-occupied Ostend in Belgium , which took place at the same time as the attack on Zeebrugge . The purpose of the attacks was to make the ports unusable for further use by German surface ships and submarines. The Afridi belonged to the security of the blockships Sirius and Brilliant of the Apollo class , with which the port entrance was to be blocked, while the monitors simultaneously shot the port with their heavy artillery. Unlike in Zeebrugge, the raid on Ostend failed completely because the block ships were navigated incorrectly and ran aground without obstructing the port access.
End of the Afridi
The last five active tribal destroyers ( Afridi, Cossack, Saracen, Viking, Zubian ) moved to the "7th Destroyer Flotilla" in the Humber in February 1919 . They formed, together with eleven old torpedo boat destroyers and three destroyers of the River class, the "East Coast Forces" until they retired from active service a month later. The boats were offered for sale in Immingham . On December 9, 1919, the F. Wilkinson company bought the Afridi for demolition.
literature
- Peter Brook: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2009, ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Conway Maritime Press, London 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
- Anthony Preston: Destroyer. Hamlyn, London 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0
Web links
- "HM Torpedo Boat Destroyer Afridi" The Engineer. Vol 103: p. 480.10 May 1907.
- TYNE BUILT SHIPS Afridi
- HMS Afridi (1907) on dreadnoughtproject
- 6th Destroyer flotilla
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Friedman: British Destroyers. P. 109f.
- ↑ a b c Brook, p. 175.
- ↑ Brook: Armstrong Warships. P. 176.
- ↑ a b c d Gardiner: Conway's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , p. 72
- ↑ B-Class: Syren (1900), Kangaroo (1900), Myrmidon (1900).
- ↑ Class C: Crane (1896), Fawn (1897), Flirt (1897); Mermaid (1898), Racehorse (1900), Greyhound (1900); Gipsy (1897), Falcon (1899), Leven (1898)
- ^ Julian S. Corbett: History of the Great War: Naval Operations Vol. III. Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1921
- ↑ 4.7 "/ 40 (12 cm) QF Marks I, II, III, IV and VI
- ↑ 2-pdr [4 cm / 39 (1.575 ") QF Mark II]
- ↑ 0.303 "(7.7 mm) Maxim Machine Gun Mark I
- ↑ Friedman, p. 100
- ^ Henry Newbolt: History of the Great War: Naval Operations Vol. V. Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1931