Acorn class destroyer

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Acorn or H class
General Characteristics
Displacement:	730 - 780 tons
Length:	246 ft 6 in
Beam:	25 ft 6 in
Draught:	7 - 10 ft
Propulsion:	oil-fired boilers, 3 shaft steam turbines, 13,500 shp
Speed:	27 kt
Range:	170 tons oil
Complement:	?
Armament:	2 x BL 4 in L/40 Mark VIII, mounting P Mark V 2 x QF 12 pdr 12 cwt Mark I, mounting P Mark I 2 x single tubes for 21 in torpedoes

The Acorn class (officially rated as the H class in 1913) was a class of twenty destroyers of the Royal Navy completed between 1910 and 1911. The Acorns served during World War I.

After the coal-burning Beagle or G class of 1909, the Acorns marked a return to oil-firing as pioneered in the Tribal or F class of 1905 and HMS Swift of 1907. This change allowed a generally smaller vessel than the Beagles even with an increase in armament.

The Acorns had a more-or-less uniform appearance, with three funnels, a tall, thin fore funnel, a short, thick central and a short narrow after stack. They had two 4-inch guns, on the fo'c'sle - which was higher than that of the Beagles, negating the need for a raised bandstand - and on the quarterdeck. The 12-pounder guns were amidships, on sided between the first pair of funnels, and the torpedo tubes were aft of the funnels, mounted singly with a searchlight poisition between them.

Three ships were lost in wartime service.

[edit] Ships

Acorn — built by Clydebank Shipbuilding Company, Clydebank, completed 1910
Alarm — built by Clydebank, completed 1910
Brisk — built by Clydebank, completed 1910
Chameleon — built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan, completed 1910
Comet — built by Fairfield, completed 1910, torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat in Mediterranean August 6, 1918
Fury — built by A. & J. Inglis, Pointhouse, Glasgow, completed 1911
Goldfinch — built by Fairfield, completed 1910, wrecked in fog on Start Point, Sanday Island, Orkneys on night of 18-19 February 1915
Hope — built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend, completed 1910
Larne — built by John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, completed 1910
Lyra — built by Thornycroft, completed 1910
Martin — built by Thornycroft, completed 1911
Minstrel — built by Thornycroft, completed 1910, loaned to Imperial Japanese Navy 1917-18 as Sendan
Nemesis — built by R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn, completed 1910, loaned to Imperial Japanese Navy 1917-18 as Kandan
Nereide — built by Hawthorn, completed 1910
Nymphe — built by Hawthorn, completed 1911
Redpole — built by J. Samuel White & Company, Cowes, completed 1910
Rifleman — built by White, completed 1910
Ruby — built by White, completed 1910
Sheldrake — built by William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, completed 1911
Staunch — built by Denny, completed 1910, torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat off Gaza, Palestine November 11, 1917