Myrmidon-class destroyer
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{no footnotes|date=January 2013}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship class overview |Name=Myrmidon class |Operators={{navy|United Kingdom}} |Class before= |Class after= |Subclasses= |Cost= |Built range=1899–1900 |In service range= |In commission range=1900–1920 |Total ships building= |Total ships planned= |Total ships completed=2 |Total ships cancelled= |Total ships active= |Total ships laid up= |Total ships lost=1 |Total ships scrapped=1 |Total ships preserved= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type=Torpedo boat destroyer |Ship displacement={{convert|350|LT|t|0|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship length={{convert|210|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion=*Triple expansion steam engines
|Ship speed= {{convert|30|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship complement= 63 |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*1 × QF 12-pounder gun |Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
The Myrmidon-class destroyer was a class of two destroyers that served with the Royal Navy. {{HMS|Myrmidon|1900|2}} and {{HMS|Syren|1900|2}} were built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company as part of the group of boats known as the 'thirty knotters'.
Concern about the higher speeds of foreign boats had prompted the Admiralty to order new destroyers capable of {{convert|30|kn|lk=in}}, rather than the {{convert|27|kn|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 in the Great War, despite being twenty years old. Thanks to their watertight bulkheads, their thin plating and light structure was able to take a great deal of damage and remain afloat, although their plates buckled easily affecting their handling. Myrmidon was sunk after a collision in 1917, while Syren served through the war and was broken up after the end of hostilities.
The ships were fitted with Reed boilers which generated around {{convert|6,200|hp|lk=on}}. They were armed with the standard 12-pounder gun and two torpedo tubes and carried a complement of 63 officers and men. Ships of this type bore four funnels and were designated {{sclass2|B|destroyer|1||1913}}s after a reorganisation in 1913. These particular ships had a special form of funnel cap fitted which was designed to prevent sea water entering the space between the funnel uptake and outer casing.
Ships
- {{HMS|Myrmidon|1900|6}}, launched 26 May 1900, rammed and sunk by SS Hambourn in the English Channel, 26 March 1917.
- {{HMS|Syren|1900|6}}, launched 20 December 1900, sold for breaking up 14 September 1920.
Bibliography
- {{cite book|editor-last=Brassey|editor-first=T. A.|title=The Naval Annual 1902|year=1902|publisher= J Griffin and Co.|location=Portsmouth, UK}}
- {{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 |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London |isbn=0-85177-133-5}}
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
- {{cite book|last1=Dittmar|first1=F.J.|last2=Colledge|first2=J.J.|title=British Warships 1914–1919|year=1972|publisher=Ian Allan|location=Shepperton, UK|isbn=0-7110-0380-7}}
- {{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|orig-year=1996|publisher=Caxton Editions|location=London|isbn=1-84067-3648}}
- {{cite book|last=Manning|first=T. D.|title=The British Destroyer|year=1961|publisher=Putnam & Co.|location=London|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)}}