HMS Arno (1915)

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Career

Built By:	Ansaldo, Genoa
Laid down:	1914
Launched:	December 22, 1914
Completed:	1915
Fate:	Collided with HMS Hope and sunk in the Dardanelles March 23, 1918
Penant:	6A
General characteristics
Displacement:	520 tons
Length:	321 ft
Beam:	23 ft 6 in
Draught:	7 ft
Propulsion:	steam turbines, 2 shafts, 8,000 shp
Speed:	28.5 kt
Range:	130 tons oil, ?
Complement:	?
Armament:	4 x QF 12 pdr 12 cwt Mark I, mounting P Mark I, 1 x triple tube for 18 in torpedoes

HMS Arno was a unique destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service and was lost during World War I. She was under construction in Genoa, Italy for the friendly Portuguese Navy as Liz in 1914 when she was bought by the Royal Navy for service in the Mediterranean. As such she joins the Town class of World War II as the only other Royal Navy destroyer type not designed and built in the United Kingdom.

She had two funnels and masts and four QF 12 pounder (3 inch / 76 mm) guns, shipped sided on the forecastle, behind the second funnel and on the quarterdeck. Although much smaller and slower than her British contemporaries, she was soundly built and had a high freeboard and tall bridge, making her a useful vessel. She was lost off the Dardanelles after a collision with the Acorn / H class destroyer Hope.