Mermaid class destroyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name: | Mermaid |
Operators: | Royal Navy |
Preceded by: | Mermaid class |
Completed: | 2 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | destroyer |
Displacement: | 385 tons (light) 430 tons (full load) |
Length: | 214 ft 6 in (65.4 m) overall |
Beam: | 21 ft 1 in (6.4 m) |
Draught: | 13 ft (4.0 m) |
Propulsion: | 2 shaft reciprocating engines 6 boilers 6,100 shp |
Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h) |
Complement: | 62 |
Armament: | 1 BL 12-pounder gun (12cwt) 5 2-pounder guns (2x1) 2 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes (2x1) |
Two Mermaid class destroyers served with the Royal Navy during the First World War [1]. They were three-funnelled turtle-backed destroyers with the usual Hawthorn funnel tops. Built in 1896-1898, HMS Mermaid and HMS Cheerful were built by R. & L. Hawthorn, Leslie & Company at their Hebburn-on-Tyne shipyard. Their Thornycroft boilers produced 6,100 HP to given them the required thirty knots and they were armed with the standard 12-pounder gun and two torpedo tubes. They carried a compliment of 63 officers and men. In 1913 the pair - like all other surviving three-funnelled destroyers of the "30-knotter" group - were reclassed as C class destroyers. The almost identical Greyhound class ships built subsequently at the same yard differed only by having Yarrow boilers.