Earnest-class destroyer
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
{{no footnotes|date=January 2013}}
{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship class overview |Name=Earnest class |Builders= Laird, Son & Co., Birkenhead |Operators={{navy|United Kingdom}} |Class before= |Class after= |Subclasses= |Cost= |Built range= 1896–98 |In service range= |In commission range= 1895–1919 |Total ships building= |Total ships planned= |Total ships completed=6 |Total ships cancelled= |Total ships active= |Total ships laid up= |Total ships lost= |Total ships scrapped=6 |Total ships preserved= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type=Torpedo boat destroyer |Ship displacement={{convert|395|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} |Ship length={{convert|213|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|21.5|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|9.75|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=*Triple expansion steam engines
|Ship speed= {{convert|30|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship power={{convert|6300|ihp|0|abbr=on}} |Ship complement= 63 |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*1 × QF 12-pounder gun |Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
Six Earnest-class destroyers served with the Royal Navy: {{HMS|Earnest|1896|2}}, {{HMS|Griffon|1896|2}}, {{HMS|Locust|1896|2}}, {{HMS|Panther|1897|2}}, {{HMS|Seal|1897|2}} and {{HMS|Wolf|1897|2}}. These ships were all built by Cammell Laird and were part of the class of 'thirty knotters'.
Concern about the higher speeds of foreign boats had prompted to Admiralty to order new destroyers capable of {{convert|30|kn|km/h}}, rather than the {{convert|27|kn|km/h|adj=on}} requirement which had been standard. The boats were not able to make this speed in bad weather, where they were usually wet and uncomfortable with cramped crew quarters, but they proved their toughness in serving through World War I, despite being twenty years old. Thanks to their watertight bulkheads, their thin plating and light structure they were able to take a great deal of damage and remain afloat, although their plates buckled easily, affecting their handling.
The ships were fitted with Normand boilers which generated around {{convert|6,300|hp|lk=in}}. They were armed with the standard 12-pounder gun and two torpedo tubes and carried a complement of 63 officers and ratings.
In 1913 the Ernest class, along with all other surviving "30 knotter" vessels with 4 funnels, were classified by the Admiralty as the B-class to provide some system to the naming of HM destroyers (at the same time, the 3-funnelled, "30 knotters" became the C-class and the 2-funnelled ships the D-class).
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|year=1979 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|isbn=0-85177-133-5|name-list-style=amp}}
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
- {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War|year=2009|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=978-1-84832-049-9}}
- {{cite book|editor1-last=Gardiner|editor1-first=Robert|editor2-last=Gray|editor2-first=Randal|title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|isbn=0-85177-245-5|name-list-style=amp}}
- {{cite book
|last=Lyon |first=David
|title=The First Destroyers
|year=2001|location=London|publisher=Caxton Editions|orig-year=1996
|isbn=1-84067-364-8}}
- {{cite book |last=Manning |first= Thomas Davys, Captain | title=The British Destroyer | publisher=Putnam & Co. | year=1961|oclc= 6470051}}
- {{cite book|last=March|first=Edgar J.|title=British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans|year=1966|publisher=Seeley Service|location=London |oclc=164893555}}
{{B class destroyer (1913)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Earnest class}}
Category:Ship classes of the Royal Navy
{{UK-destroyer-stub}}