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HMS Fame
Class overview
BuildersJohn I. Thornycroft & Company
Preceded byA class "27-knotters"
Succeeded byRiver class (E class)
Built1895–1899
In commission1896–1921
Completed10
General characteristics
TypeTorpedo boat destroyer
Displacement355 to 370 tons at full load
Length210 ft (64 m)
Beam19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Draught7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
Propulsion
Speed30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Armament

The D class as they were known from 1913 was a fairly homogeneous group of torpedo boat destroyers (TBDs) built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s. They were all constructed to the individual designs of their builder, John I. Thornycroft & Company of Chiswick, to meet Admiralty specifications. The uniting feature of the class was a top speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) and they all had two funnels.

Classification

In 1913 the nine surviving "30 knotter" vessels with two funnels (all ten had been built by Thornycroft, but Ariel was lost before their renaming as D class) were retrospectively classified by the Admiralty as the D class to provide some system to the naming of HM destroyers. In the same way those with three funnels were classified as the C-class and those with four funnels as the B-class. All these vessels had a distinctive "turtleback" forecastle that was intended to clear water from the bow, but actually tended to dig the bow in to anything of a sea, resulting in a very wet conning position. They were better constructed than their A-class forebears (the "26 knotter" and "27 knotter" groups), but still were poor seaboats unable to reach top speed in anything but perfect conditions.

Design

They generally displaced 355 to 370 tons and had a length of 210 ft (64 m). All were powered by triple expansion steam engines for 5,700 indicated horsepower (4,300 kW) and had coal-fired water-tube boilers, except for the final vessel (Stag) in which the engine power was slightly raised to 5,800 ihp (4,300 kW). Armament was one QF 12-pounder gun on a bandstand on the forecastle, five QF 6-pounder guns (two sided abreast the conning tower, two sided between the funnels and one on the quarterdeck) and two single tubes for 18-inch (450 mm) torpedoes.

Due to the successful development of their previous 26 and 27-knot torpedo boat destroyers, John I Thornycroft & Company developed their two funnel design for the 1894/1895 – 1897/1898 building programs. The ships were considered an incremental improvement to the previous 27-knot design of the 1893/94 program. This design would be used for all follow-on turtleback ships under the 30-knot specification. The 30-knot torpedo boat destroyers built by Thornycroft were referred to as two funnel – 30-knot ships and were not assigned a class name at the time.[1]

They featured a large fore-bridge, mast halfway between bridge and fore funnel, turtleback cut-away bow, large round stern, both torpedo tubes on centerline aft of second funnel and two funnels. They had a Thornycroft stern with the rudder not visible. They had dual rudders which made them very responsive to the helm.[2][3]

Ships

All ten of the D class were built by Thornycroft at Chiswick, in four batches.

Key dates and fates

Name Yard number Laid down Launched Trials [5] Completed Fate
Desperate 305 1 Jul 1895 15 Feb 1896 26 Jun 1896
(a) 		Feb 1897 Sold for scrap 20 May 1920,
to Thos. W. Ward, Milford Haven
Fame 306 4 Jul 1895 15 Apr 1896 15 Apr 1897 Jun 1897 Sold for scrap 31 August 1921,
at Hong Kong.
Foam 307 16 Jul 1895 8 Oct 1896 7 May 1897 Jul 1897 Sold for scrap 26 May 1914,
at Chatham
Mallard 308 13 Sep 1895 19 Nov 1896 17 Sep 1897 Oct 1897 Sold for scrap 10 February 1920,
to South Alloa Shipbreaking Co.
Angler 313 21 Dec 1896 2 Feb 1897 27 May 1898
3 Jun 1898 		Jul 1898 Sold for scrap 20 May 1920,
to Thos. W. Ward, Milford Haven
Ariel 314 23 Apr 1896 5 Mar 1897 7 Aug 1898
17 Aug 1898 		Oct 1898 Wrecked at Malta 19 April 1907
Coquette 319 8 Jun 1896 25 Nov 1897 27 Jul 1899
20 Dec 1898 		Jan 1899 Mined and sunk in the North Sea, 7 March 1916
Cygnet 320 25 Sep 1896 3 Sep 1898 5 May 1899 Feb 1900 Sold for scrap 29 April 1920,
to Thos. W. Ward, Rainham
Cynthia 321 16 Jul 1896 8 Jan 1898 26 Oct 1899 Jun 1899 Sold for scrap 29 April 1920,
to Thos. W. Ward, Rainham
Stag 334 16 Apr 1898 18 Nov 1899 19 Jun 1900 Sep 1900 Sold for scrap 17 March 1921,
to Thos. W. Ward, Grays

Notes: (a) Desperate had a final run over the measured mile on 4 September 1896. Altogether, this vessel completed nine successive preliminary trials.

See also

Name Yard number Laid down Launched Completed Fate
SMS D 10 322 1896 24 Mar 1898 13 Oct 1898 Sold for scrap 28 July 1922, broken in Wilhelmshaven

Notes

  1. ^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906 to 1922. Conway Maritime Press. 2006. pp. 17–19. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
  2. ^ Jane, Fred T. (1969) [1898, Sampson Low Marston, London]. Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships 1898. New York: ARCO Publishing Company. pp. 84–85.
  3. ^ Jane, Fred T. (1990) [1919]. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. Jane’s Publishing. p. 76. ISBN 1-85170-378-0.
  4. ^ The plans for this design were also used for building the Japanese destroyers Murakumo (Yard Number 329), Shinonome (330), Yūgiri (331), Shiranui (332), Kagerō (337) and Usugumo (338), comprising the Murakumo Class.
  5. ^ David Lyon, The Thornycroft List (1981). Where two dates are shown in this column, the first is for a run over the measured mile, while the second is for a three hours continuous run.

Bibliography

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