The Grand Fleet 1914-19 by The Royal Navy in the First World War

Author:The Royal Navy in the First World War
Format: epub
Published: 2014-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

After inspection, Zulu and Nubian were both towed to Chatham dockyard, where fore section of Zulu and the after part of Nubian were joined together, despite there being a 4in difference in the beam of both vessels.

As Nubian, the newly created ship served throughout the remainder of the war with distinction, sinking the German mine-laying submarine UC50 off the Essex coast in 1916 by ramming and depth charge. The Nubian thus acquired three battle honours before being sent for breaking in 1919.

The ship that followed the Tribals was a one-off experiment built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead as a flotilla leader and completed in 1907.

HMS Swift was almost the size of a light cruiser, being 2,200 tons’ displacement, with a length of 353ft and 34ft beam, with turbines of a massive 45,000hp. She could reach 40 knots, being originally armed with four 4in guns, with the two on the forecastle being replaced by a single 6in weapon in 1913, this being the heaviest gun mounted on a destroyer. Although she was referred to as the fastest ship in the Navy, she proved to be unsatisfactory, with recurring mechanical breakdowns and a high fuel consumption, at a speed of 27 miles per hour from a capacity of only 180 tons.

On 20 April 1917, together with HMS Broke, she engaged six German destroyers in the Dover Straits, during which Swift torpedoed the German destroyer G85 but received gunfire damage herself. In the meantime, the Broke had rammed the G42 where, with both ships locked together, hand to hand fighting broke out on the decks before the German crew of the sinking ship surrendered. The other four German destroyers retired from the action and the Swift went to the aid of Broke, rescuing the German crew of the sinking G42.

Originally planned by Admiral Fisher to be a new class of high-speed destroyer leader, and originally attached to the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla of the Grand Fleet, her performance was judged unsatisfactory, as were her sea-keeping qualities that made her unsuitable to operate with the fleet, despite her large size. No further boats of this class were built.

As war approached the Admiralty recognised the need for uniformity in the design of destroyers so that they could operate in flotillas of fifteen to twenty ships that would all have comparable performance.

The sixteen ships of the G or Basilisk class of 1910 conformed to this requirement and returned to coal-fired boilers, as it was considered that the supply of oil could be compromised in the event of war. These were the last British destroyers to burn coal.

These three-funnelled ships were projected under the 1908–09 estimates, and were 270ft in length with a beam of 28ft, making them roomier than the earlier ships. They displaced 900 tons, while turbines of 12,500hp on three shafts gave a speed of 28 knots. Armament consisted of a 4in Mk VIII breech-loading gun, three 12lb quick firers and two 21in torpedo tubes.

In order to improve their sea-keeping qualities, the bridge was

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