Spiteful-class destroyer
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
{{no footnotes|date=January 2013}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship class overview |Name=Spiteful class |Builders= Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited, Jarrow |Operators={{navy|United Kingdom}} |Class before= |Class after= |Subclasses= |Cost= |Built range=1898–1899 |In service range= |In commission range=1899–1920 |Total ships building= |Total ships planned= |Total ships completed=2 |Total ships cancelled= |Total ships active= |Total ships laid up= |Total ships lost= |Total ships scrapped=2 |Total ships preserved= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |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=*2 × 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= }} |
Two Spiteful-class destroyers served with the Royal Navy. These ships were both built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited at Jarrow, and were 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. However, they proved their toughness while serving through 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 were easily damaged by rough handling or heavy weather.
The ships were fitted with Reed water tube boilers that generated around {{convert|6,300|hp|lk=in}}. Both were originally fired using coal, but in 1904 Spiteful was converted to burn fuel oil. They were armed with the standard 12-pounder gun and two torpedo tubes and carried a complement of 63 officers and men. The two ships of this type bore four funnels and were designated {{sclass2|B|destroyer|1||1913}}s in 1913. They were sold off after the end of hostilities.
Ships
- {{HMS|Spiteful|1899|2}}, launched 11 January 1899, sold for breaking up 14 September 1920.
- {{HMS|Peterel|1899|2}}, launched 30 March 1899, sold for breaking up 30 August 1919.
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 |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)}}