Destructor (Spanish warship)
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Destructor was a 19th-century Spanish naval vessel. She was a large torpedo gunboat and a precursor of the destroyer type of vessel. The Spanish Navy officer Fernando Villaamil was its designer.
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[edit] Genesis
In the 1880s there was a need to counter the threat posed by the new fast torpedo boats giving rise to a new type of torpedo boat which would have greater autonomy, so as to be capable of escorting the larger ships on long voyages.
The Spanish government asked several British shipyards to submit proposals and designs and finally chose in 1885 the design submitted by the shipyard of Mssrs. James and George Thomson of Clydebank, not far from the Yarrow shipyards. She was laid down at the end of the year, launched in 1886, and commissioned in 1887.
[edit] Characteristics
Her displacement was 348 tons, and she was equipped with triple expansion engines generating 3,784 HP (2.8 MW), for a maximum speed of 22.6 knots (42 km/h). She was armed with one 90 mm Hontoria cannon, four 57mm (6-pdr) Nordenfeldt cannon, two 37mm (3-pdr) Hotchkiss guns and 5 15in Schwartzkopff torpedo tubes. Her complement was 60 men.
In terms of gunnery, speed (22.5 knots in trials) and dimensions, the speciallised design to chase torpedo boats and her high seas capabilities, Destructor is widely considered a very important example in the evolution of the destroyer class of ships.[1]The Spanish Destructor is thought to have influenced the design and concept of later destroyers developed by the British Navy.[2][3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ From an article about the American Greyhounds
- Quote:
- ^ Lion, page 18: J&G Thomson's 1892 design for a TBD is, not unsurprisingly, somewhat reminiscent of their "Destructor" built for the Spanish Navy.
- ^ Lion, page 66: It was already (J&G Thomson Clydebank shipyard), when asked to tender for TBDs for the Royal Navy, building trasatlantics liners and cruisers to the navy, and had built an interesting torpedo vessel under the prophetic name of "Destructor" ("Destroyer") for Spain. Its first design (for the British navy in 1892) was cleary a successor of the "Destructor".
[edit] References
- Cheseneau, R & Kolesnik, E (Eds): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-85177-133-5
- The First Destroyers: Lion, David , Chatham Shipshape Series, London, 1997.