Mermaid class destroyer

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Class overview
Name: Mermaid
Operators: RN Ensign 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.