HMS Swift (1907)

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Career The White Ensign of the Royal Navy.
Built By: Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down: 1905
Launched:
Completed: December 7, 1907
Fate: Sold for scrapping, November 1921
General Characteristics
Displacement: 1,825 tons standard, 2,207 tons full
Length: 353 ft
Beam: 34 ft 6 in
Draught: 10 ft 6 in light, 13 ft deep
Propulsion: Yarrow-type water tube boilers, Parsons steam turbines, 4 shafts, 30,000 shp
Speed: 35 kt
Range: 180 tons oil, ?
Complement: 138
Armament:
  • As built;
    • 4 x BL 4 in L/40 Mark VIII, single mount P Mark V
    • 1 x QF 2 pdr "pom-pom" Mk. II, single mount P Mk. I
    • 2 x tubes for 18 in torpedoes
  • From 1917;
    • 1 x BL 6 in L/45 Mark XII, single mount P Mk. VII
    • 2 x BL 4 in L/40 Mark VIII, single mount P Mark V
    • 1 x QF 2 pdr "pom-pom" Mk. II, single mount P Mk. I
    • 2 x tubes for 21 in torpedoes

HMS Swift was a unique destroyer leader designed and built for the Royal Navy prior to World War I, yet another product of Admiral "Jackie" Fisher's relentless quest for speed. She was designed to be the prototype for a class of large ocean-going destroyers, but remained something of an abortion; the only ship in the Royal Navy of this type, size and design.

The tonnage of Swift was double that of her contemporary destroyers, in order to produce a vessel large enough and fast enough to take on the scouting duties of the cruiser. As such she was designed wih oil firing and four shafts to make 39 knots. It was released that she had met this on builder's trials, even though she failed to better 35 knots. This minor fallacy was somewhat irrelevant however, as even if she had made her design speed she carried only 180 tons of oil fuel and at full power was uneconomical. Her cruising radius at speed was therefore totally unsuitable for scouting duties. For a vessel of her size she was also lightly built and armed to reduce displacement, and was consequently a poor seaboat and of limited operational utility.

After operational damage in the Battle of Dover Strait in 1917 she was reconstructed, receiving a permanent bridge and wheelhouse structure and had the sided 4 inch guns on the forecastle replaced with a 6 inch weapon. As such she was the only Royal Navy destroyer to ever carry a gun of this caliber. Quietly sidelined and scrapped after the war, her size was not approached in the Royal Navy until the Tribal class of 1936.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981, Maurice Cocker, 1983, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
  • Destroyers, Anthony Preston, 1977, Bison Books, ISBN 0-86124-057-X
  • Jane's Fighting Ships, 1919, Jane's Publishing
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