Tribal class (1905)
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| Tribal class | |
 HMS Zulu , the last boat in the class |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 12 |
| Shipyard |
Cammell Laird , Birkenhead |
| Order | 1905-1908 |
| Launch | 1907 to 1909 |
| delivery | 1908 to 1910 |
| Namesake | warlike peoples or groups |
| Whereabouts | 3 war losses, all canceled from 1919 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
765 to 1090 ts |
| length |
77.8 m (255 ft) |
| width |
7.8 m (25.5 ft) |
| Draft |
2.6 m (8.5 ft) |
| crew |
79 men |
| drive |
2 or 3 steam turbines |
| speed |
33 kn , 2 or 3 screws |
| Armament |
• 4 × 76 mm L / 40 cannon |
| Fuel supply |
185–216 t of oil |
The Tribal - or F-class was a destroyer - class of the Royal Navy , were first equipped with all boats turbine powered and oil firing. Between 1905 and 1910 twelve units were built in three lots. They were used in the First World War in the North Sea and in the English Channel with the 6th destroyer flotilla (6th destroyer flotilla). Two boats sank after being hit by mines; A boat was put back together from two severely damaged boats. From 1919 the remaining boats were sold for demolition.
draft
The 1903 River or E-class destroyers , which preceded the Tribal class, ran only 25.5 knots and were propelled by two coal-fired triple expansion engines. The First Sea Lord , John Fisher , suggested in November 1904 that the next class should run at least 33 knots and should be powered by oil-fired steam turbines, and with this proposal he prevailed. The Royal Navy had until then only four boats with steam turbines for experimental purposes obtained ( Viper , Cobra , Velox and the Eden of the River class ).
_IWM_Q_021123.jpg)
The installation of the turbine drive made the new boats longer, as the performance had to be doubled compared to their predecessors and the design went to the limits of what was technically feasible at the time. As a result, the class was a compromise solution and in some areas a step backwards compared to the excellent and very seaworthy River class. It turned out that the Tribal class boats were vulnerable in use because of their lightweight construction.
In addition, they could stash between 185 and 216 tons of fuel. Since they had a high fuel consumption due to the outstanding performance of 12,500 HP at the beginning, their radius of action was very limited.
The armament increased compared to the River class from four to five 3-inch guns , the number of torpedo tubes remained the same with two 18-inch torpedo tubes. From the sixth unit, the Saracen , the artillery armament was changed to two 4-inch guns that were raised at the bow and stern.
Details of the design were left to the individual shipyards, as was customary in the Royal Navy at the time. A total of seven shipyards were involved in the construction of the Tribal class. As a result, there were differences in appearance, e.g. B. the number of chimneys varied from three to six (only HMS Viking ). They were the first British two-masted destroyers.
_IWM_Q_021130.jpg)
The three construction lots went from the 1905/06 budget with five boats to five shipyards, from the 1906/07 budget with two boats to two shipyards of the first order (five new boats were proposed) and from the 1907/08 budget with another five boats at five shipyards, two of which were involved for the first time.
In addition to the destroyers of the tribal class, 36 “destroyers” of the cricket class were built for the coastal area at the same time , but they were soon reclassified as 1st class torpedo boats. These small boats, displacing a maximum of 400 tn, also received a turbine drive and the majority of them were built in shipyards that also manufactured boats of the tribal class.
Mission history
At the beginning of World War II, the boats were Tribal class by the now delivered boats Beagle class whose 16 boats in the Mediterranean were used in the fifth destroyer, the 20 boats Acorn - and 23 of Acheron class in the second and 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Grand Fleet and the 20 boats of the Acasta - and 22 boats of the Laforrey class currently in the pipeline in the 4th and 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in the Harwich Force and moved to the rear of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla on the Dover Patrol relocated where their short range did not matter.
The rapid advance of the Germans in the west and the use of Flemish bases for light naval forces brought the boats of the Tribal class into direct combat. When the war started, the 6th Destroyer alongside the boats who possessed Tribal class destroyers still twelve of B - and C class , older "30 Knotters" with four and three chimneys. There were also the two reconnaissance cruisers Adventure and Attentive . The boats formed an essential part of the " Dover Patrol ", which secured the Dover lock and was supposed to prevent German naval forces from entering the English Channel . The smoothest possible traffic over the canal was of great importance for the warfare of the Entente on the Western Front. The boats were on alert for 17 days or at sea and then cleaned the boilers for three days. Every four months, the boats were repaired for three weeks. This rhythm put the boats and crews under considerable strain.
When the Germans penetrated the Belgian coast, the ships were also involved in land battles in order to stabilize the Allied front. Here some boats of the Tribal class received their first hits from the German land artillery. From October 18 to 20, 1914, the Attentive with the Amazon , the Cossack , the Mohawk , the Nubian , the Tartar and the Viking together with the Foresight and the Humber , Mersey and Severn monitors taken over by the Royal Navy were in action. The Amazon was on 20 as the flagship of Rear Admiral Horace Hood several hits close Lombartzyde north of Nieuwpoort and fell with fancy part of boilers; the Viking had an explosion in the bow gun.
On March 4, 1915, the Ghurka and the Maori sank the German submarine U 8 , which was caught in a steel net of the Dover Barrier off the southern coast of England. The first total failure occurred on May 7, 1915 when the Maori and the Crusader explored the Belgian coast to explore positions for a bombardment by the Venerable and the Maori ran into a mine . The Viking sent a boat to support the sinking sister ship, but then had to withdraw from the German artillery fire. The Maori sank two nautical miles north-west of Zeebrugge in position 51 ° 21 ' N , 3 ° 6' O . The crew of 94 men and the Viking boat crew were captured.
On June 1, 1915, the Mohawk ran into a mine off Dover, was damaged and five people died. The Viking also suffered a severe mine hit on January 29, 1916, with ten dead and eight seriously injured. On September 24th, the Crusader was hit by German land artillery off the Flemish coast and suffered minor damage and two deaths.
On the night of October 26th to 27th 1916 there was then a battle between the flotilla and German units, the first sea battle in the Canal , when 23 German torpedo boats attacked the British security line at the Dover Barrier and seven guard boats, the old destroyer Flirt and the freighter Queen sank. The six alerted destroyers of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla under Commander Henry Oliphant on the Viking split into two groups contrary to the given orders. The Nubian , who was well ahead of her group , reached the battlefield first, but mistook the boats of the German 17th half flotilla for her own ships and was surprised by gunfire. She tried in vain to ram the last German boat and was then hit by a torpedo , which tore off the bow and made her a drifting wreck. In addition to the serious damage, she had fifteen dead and six seriously wounded. The Amazon , who arrived later , intervened in the battle, receiving several hits, with two kettles failing and five dead and six seriously wounded. The second group met the departing Germans and then also the 18th half-flotilla marching back. The Viking and the Tartar were undamaged in the fighting . Only the Mohawk was hit and killed four people. None of the German boats had any personnel losses and only G 91 was damaged. The wreck of the Nubian was towed, but then stranded north of Dover after the towing connection broke.
On November 8, 1916, the Zulu suffered a mine hit off Dunkirk , which severely damaged her stern and killed three people. It could, however, be introduced. Her wreck was transferred to Chatham Dockyard , where she and the wreck of the Nubian became a new destroyer named Zubian , which entered service in June 1917.
The worst loss of the Tribal class occurred on February 8, 1917 , when the Ghurka ran into a mine off Dungeness , which had been laid by the German submarine UC 47 under Paul Hundius , and sank in a very short time. Only five crew members survived the sinking, 74 men lost their lives.
On June 24, the Tartar also suffered a mine hit off Boulogne-sur-Mer and had 43 deaths; however, the boat could be brought in. On February 3, 1918, the Viking was damaged in a collision in which four sailors died.
At the end of the war, nine Tribal- class destroyers were still in existence, five of which were still in service in Dover. All were sold for demolition by 1921.
The individual boats
The first five were commissioned in the 1905/1906 budget, two followed in 1906/1907 and five in 1908/1909:
| Surname | shipyard | Launch | in service | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cossack |
Cammell Laird , Birkenhead |
02/16/1907 | 03/12/1908 | December 1919 sold for demolition |
| Mohawk |
White , Cowes |
03/15/1907 | 06.1908 | May 1919 sold for demolition |
| Ghurka |
Hawthorn Leslie , Newcastle , Building No. 777 |
04/29/1907 | December 19, 1908 | 02/08/1917 ran into mine in front of Dungeness Buoy and sank |
| Afridi |
Armstrong , Elswick , Building No. 408 |
May 8, 1907 | 09/10/1909 | Sold for demolition in February 1919 |
| Tartare |
Thornycroft , Southampton-Woolston |
06/25/1907 | 04.1908 | May 1921 sold for demolition |
| Saracen | White | March 31, 1908 | 06/25/1909 | Sold for demolition in October 1919 |
| Amazon | Thornycroft | 07/29/1908 | 04.1909 | Sold for demolition in October 1919 |
| Crusader | White | 03/20/1909 | 10/21/1909 | June 1920 sold for demolition |
| Nubian | Thornycroft | 04/21/1909 | 08/24/1909 | October 27, 1916 torpedoed and damaged by German torpedo boats off Folkestone ; the stern was used with the bow of the Zulu to build the Zubian . |
| Maori |
Denny , Dumbarton , building no. 850 |
05/24/1909 | 11/11/1909 | May 7th, 1915 ran into mine off Wirlingen, Zeebrugge and sank |
| Viking |
Palmers , Jarrow near Newcastle , building no. 804 |
09/14/1909 | 06/30/1910 | December 1919 sold for demolition |
| Zulu | Hawthorn Leslie, building no. 428 | 09/16/1909 | March 16, 1910 | 11/8/1916 ran into mine and damaged, bug related to Zubian |
| Zubian |
Chatham Dockyard , Chatham |
June 7, 1917 | was made up of the remains of Zulu (Bug) and Nubian , sold for demolition in December 1919. |
literature
- Mark Karau: Wielding the Dagger. Praeger Publishers, Westport 2003, ISBN 0-3133-2475-1 .
- Peter Kemp: HM Destroyers. H. Jenkins, London 1956.
- Anthony Preston: Destroyer. Hamlyn, London 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ Preston, p. 22.
- ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars . Graefelfing before Munich: Urbes, 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 11.
- ↑ Kemp, p. 107
- ↑ Karau, p. 84
- ↑ Kemp, p. 108
- ↑ a b c After the damage to the Nubian in October and the Zulu in November 1916, it was proposed on November 8, 1916 to build a new unit from the two undamaged parts. This work was completed on June 7, 1917 by the Chatham Royal Dockyard, where the undamaged front section of the Zulu was connected to the undamaged rear section of the Nubian . The new boat entered service on June 7, 1917 as Zubian .