HMS Swift (1907)
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.JPG) HMS Swift |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Flotilla leader |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | December 1906 |
| Launch | December 7, 1907 |
| Commissioning | August 1910 |
| Whereabouts | sold for demolition on December 9, 1921 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement | |
| length |
overall: 107.8 m (353.75 ft) |
| width |
10.5 m (34.5 ft) |
| Draft |
3.2 m (10.5 ft) |
| crew |
138 men |
| drive |
12 Yarrow boilers , |
| speed |
34 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
180 ts, later 280 (max 385) ts |
| Armament 1917 |
1 × 6 "-152 mm Mk.XII L / 45 cannon |
HMS Swift was a single ship that was developed according to the ideas of the First Sea Lord , Admiral "Jackie" Fisher . After his requirements for a ship of about 900 tons displacement, 320 feet in length and 36 knots top speed in October 1904, Cammell Laird , Thornycrofts , Fairfields , John Brown and Armstrong Whitworth submitted proposals. In mid-December 1905, an order was placed with Cammell Laird and the Swift was built, which was extensively tested.
Although intended as a prototype of a class of new flotilla commanders , no further ships of this type were built until 1914 because the armament was considered too weak, the speed requirements were not realized and the costs were too high.
At the beginning of the First World War , the Swift served as the guide boat of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in the Grand Fleet . The winter weather in the northern North Sea turned out to be too stressful for the ship, so that it was assigned to the " Dover Patrol " from spring 1915 , where it served until the end of the war.
Building history
The Swift was created after a request from the First Sea Lord, Admiral Fisher, for a large, ocean-capable destroyer that could take on destroyer and reconnaissance tasks for a battle fleet. Fisher's ideas (320 feet long, 900 tons displacement, 36 knots) were answered with suggestions by the major civil shipyards (Cammell Laird, Thornycroft, Fairfield, John Brown and Armstrong) in October 1904. The requested shipyards had difficulties implementing the requirements. A design submitted by Armstrong would cost £ 284,000, compared to £ 139,881 for a Tribal class destroyer ( HMS Afridi ).
Finally, in mid-December 1905, the Admiralty decided to give Cammell Laird a contract to build a ship 340 ft in length and 1,680 tons of displacement, armed with four individual 4 inch 102 mm Mark VIII guns and two 18 inch torpedo tubes and one oil-fired 30,000 PSi Parsons turbine system should be driven on four shafts. The price was to be £ 236,000 and the name was intended to be Flying Scud ( changed to Swift in April 1906 ). The keel-laying of the ship took place in December 1906 and it was launched on December 7, 1907 from the stack .
The contract with the Admiralty included the addition of a premium of £ 18,000 for every node reached over 36 nodes. The mile journeys of the Swift off Skelmorlie in March 1909 suffered from a large number of failures and only resulted in a maximum speed of 35,099 knots. In addition, there was a shockingly high fuel consumption of 27.5 tons / hour with a supply of only 180 tons. In further tests through September 1909, 26 different screw designs were tested in order to achieve the required speed of 36 knots. The Admiralty finally accepted the ship for £ 236,764, of which, however, £ 44,240 should be deducted because of the failure to achieve the contract speed and the late completion. After negotiations with the manufacturer, the deductions were eventually reduced to £ 5000. Contrary to the actual speeds achieved, the Swift was assigned a speed of 38 knots in the press.
Although built as a prototype of a class, no further flotilla commanders were commissioned until 1914 . Unlike other ideas Fisher, like the HMS Dreadnought or the HMS Indomitable , which changed the battleship and battlecruiser construction of all large fleets, the Swift did not have a similar impact on warship construction development. In the Royal Navy, destroyers of a similar size were only commissioned with the second Tribal class of 1936 , which, however, had been preceded by large destroyers from other navies.
War effort
At the beginning of the First World War , the Swift served as the guide boat of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in the Grand Fleet . On October 15, 1914, after the sinking of the cruiser HMS Hawke , she was sent to the rescue of survivors with the destroyers HMS Contest and HMS Christopher . Most of the 65 survivors had previously been rescued by a random Norwegian freighter.
The winter weather in the northern North Sea turned out to be too stressful for the Swift , who was easily built in their associations , so that she was assigned to the "Dover Patrol" in the spring of 1915. In 1916, the Swift underwent a major overhaul, replacing the two front 4-inch guns with a single 6-inch gun. She was the only destroyer in the Royal Navy to ever receive a cannon of this caliber. In addition, her foredeck had been considerably reinforced to be able to withstand the weight and recoil of the weapon.
The modernized Swift led on the night of 20 April 21, 1917 a routine inspection tour by Ambrose Peck along with the HMS Broke under Edward Evans a fight with six German torpedo boats at the entrance to the Strait of Dover near the Goodwin Sands , which at night Shot at Dover . In a confusing battle, the second naval battle in the Strait of Dover , the Swift sank the German boat G 85 , commanded by Kapitänleutnant Hans-Heinrich Stobwasser, with a torpedo (83 dead), while the Broke sank the G 42, commanded by Bernd von Arnim rammed. Eventually the Broke was released again, badly damaged, and G 42 sank with 36 dead. The Swift initially chased the fleeing German boats, received some artillery hits from the torpedo boat S 53 and was then no longer able to maintain speed. She turned to support the Broke and rescued part of the crew of the sinking G 42 . There were few casualties on the Swift : one man fell and five were wounded. The 6-inch gun did not prove itself in battle and was replaced by two 4-inch guns. The battle damage repair and dismantling lasted until July 1917.
In the spring of 1918, the Swift took part in the raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend as part of the security flotilla .
The End
At the end of the war, the Swift was decommissioned and in December 1921, like many other obsolete boats, sold to the Royal Navy to be scrapped.
literature
- HW Baldwin: World War I: An Outline History , Harper and Row, New York, 1962
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allan, 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
- Anthony Preston: Destroyers , Bison Books, 1977, ISBN 0-86124-057-X
Web links
- Special Boat Jane's 1919
- HMS Swift battleships-cruisers.co. with lots of photos