| Acasta-class destroyer | |
|---|---|
 HMS Shark | |
| Class overview | |
| Name: | Acasta-class destroyer |
| Operators: |
 Royal Navy |
| Preceded by: | Acheron-class destroyer |
| Succeeded by: | L-class destroyer |
| Built: | 1912–1913 |
| In commission: | 1912–1923 |
| Completed: | 20 |
| Lost: | 7 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Torpedo Boat Destroyer |
| Displacement: | 934 to 984 tons |
| Length: | 267 ft 6 in (81.53 m) to 252 ft (76.8 m) |
| Beam: | 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) to 26 ft 9 in (8.15 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) to 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Installed power: | 24,500 hp (18,270 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
Standard K-class:
Acasta, Achates, Ambuscade:
|
| Speed: | 29 kn (53.7 km/h) - 32 kn (59.3 km/h)[1] |
| Complement: | 75 - 77 |
| Armament: |
|
The Acasta class (in September 1913 re-designated the K class) was a class of twenty destroyers built for the Royal Navy under the Naval Programme of 1911 - 1912 that saw service during World War I. They were the last class of Royal Navy destroyers to have mixed names with no systematic theme (see naming conventions for destroyers of the Royal Navy for more information.) When the class was designated as "K", names beginning with that letter were allocated to the ships but never used.[Note 1][4] The class saw extensive wartime service and seven were lost, including four at the Battle of Jutland.
Design[]
The Acastas were larger and heavier armed than the preceding H and I classes (Acorn and Acheron, respectively), displacing about 25% more and with the mixed calibre armament replaced with a uniform fit of QF 4-inch guns, which the Acastas introduced. Previous 4-inch (102 mm) weapons had been of the breech-loading (BL) type. The guns were shipped one each on the forecastle and either side abreast the after torpedo tube (or amidships before and after the tube in some ships.) All ships had three funnels, the foremost being tall and narrow, the second short and wide and the third level with the second but narrower. The foremost torpedo tube was sited between the second and third funnels, a distinctive feature of this class.
There were twelve 'standard' vessels built to a common Admiralty design,[1] and eight builders' specials that (except for Garland) had a shorter, less beamy hull; five of the latter were from Thornycroft with 22,500 shp (16,800 kW), one by Parsons that made 31 knots (57 km/h) on trials, a seventh from Fairfields, and an eighth by William Denny, Dumbarton.
Service[]
At the outbreak of World War I until mid-1916, the Acastas were serving in the Grand Fleet as the 4th Destroyer flotilla, with Swift as leader. By the time of Jutland the leader was the Faulknor-class leader Tipperary, with Ardent, Fortune, Shark and Sparrowhawk lost in the course of the battle[5] and Acasta was so badly damaged that she had to be practically rebuilt. After Jutland the remainder of the flotilla moved to the Humber and then to Portsmouth by the end of 1916, before dispersing, some ships to the 6th Destroyer Flotilla and the Dover Patrol and the remainder to Devonport. All survivors of the war were sold out of service for scrapping by 1921.
Ships[]
Admiralty K class[]
| Name | Ship Builder | Launched | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acasta | John Brown and Company, Clydebank | 10 September 1912 | Sold for breaking up 9 May 1921.[6] |
| Achates | John Brown and Company, Clydebank | 14 November 1912 | Sold for breaking up 9 May 1921.[6] |
| Ambuscade | John Brown and Company, Clydebank | 25 January 1913 | Sold for breaking up 6 September 1921.[6] |
| Christopher | Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Newcastle upon Tyne | 29 August 1912 | Sold for breaking up 9 May 1921.[6] |
| Cockatrice | Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Newcastle upon Tyne | 8 November 1912 | Sold for breaking up 9 May 1921.[6] |
| Contest | Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Newcastle upon Tyne | 7 January 1913 | Torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat in the Western Approaches 18 September 1917.[7] |
| Lynx | Harland & Wolff, Govan | 20 March 1913 | Mined and sunk in Moray Firth by mine laid from German raider Meteor 9 August 1915.[7] |
| Midge | Harland & Wolff, Govan | 22 May 1913 | Sold for breaking up 5 November 1921.[6] |
| Owl | Harland & Wolff, Govan | 7 July 1913 | Sold for breaking up 5 November 1921.[6] |
| Shark | Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend | 30 July 1912 | Disabled by gunfire and torpedoed and sunk at Battle of Jutland 31 May 1916.[7] |
| Sparrowhawk | Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend | 12 October 1912 | Collided with Faulknor-class leader Broke at Battle of Jutland and torpedoed by HMS Marksman 1 June 1916.[7] |
| Spitfire | Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend | 23 December 1912 | Sold for breaking up 9 May 1921.[6] |
Builders' special K class[]
| Name | Ship Builder | Launched | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ardent | William Denny & Brothers Limited, Dumbarton | 8 September 1913 | Sunk by secondary gunfire from German dreadnought SMS Westfalen at Battle of Jutland 1 June 1916.[7] |
| Fortune | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan | 17 March 1913 | Sunk by secondary gunfire from German dreadnought SMS Westfalen at Battle of Jutland on night of 31 May / 1 June 1916.[7] |
| Garland | Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, Wallsend (hull sub-contracted to Cammell Laird & Company, Birkenhead) | 23 April 1913 | Sold for breaking up 6 September 1921.[6] |
| Hardy | John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, Woolston | 10 October 1913 | Sold for breaking up 9 May 1921.[6] |
| Paragon | John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, Woolston | 21 February 1913 | Torpedoed and sunk by German destroyer in action in the Straits of Dover 18 March 1917.[7] |
| Porpoise | John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, Woolston | 7 July 1913 | Sold 23 February 1920 back to Thornycroft for resale to Brazil; became Brazilian Alexandrino Deaenca, later Maranhao.[6] |
| Unity | John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, Woolston | 18 September 1913 | Sold for breaking up 25 October 1922.[6] |
| Victor | John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, Woolston | 28 November 1913 | Sold for breaking up 20 January 1923.[6] |
.jpg "HMS Hardy (1913).jpg (14 KB)")
.jpg "HMS Ardent (1913).jpg (28 KB)")
See also[]
Notes[]
- ↑ No class of ships were designated as J class.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "K-class destroyers (extract from Jane's Fighting Ships of 1919)". http://www.pbenyon1.plus.com/Janes_1919/Destroyers/K_And_I_Class.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
- ↑ H.M.S.O. (1916). The Sight Manual. Pub. No. OU 6026. p. 80. ADM 186/216
- ↑ March. British Destroyers, p. 127.
- ↑ Norman Friedman, British Destroyers, From Earliest Days to the Second World War 2009 ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 p. 129
- ↑ ""Arrowsmith" List: Royal Navy WWI Destroyer Pendant Numbers". http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s0450000.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 "Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk website - Destroyers before 1918". http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/destroyers_before_1900.htm. Retrieved 2000-02-27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 "British Destroyers - Naval history.net website". Archived from the original on 6 March 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090306180036/http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishDestroyers.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
Bibliography[]
- Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981, Maurice Cocker, 1983, Ian Allan ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
External links[]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Acasta class destroyer. |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The original article can be found at Acasta-class destroyer and the edit history here.