"W" Class Destroyer (1917)

Twenty-one destroyers of the "W" Class were completed in 1917-1918. They were essentially the same design as the "V" class, but incorporated the triple torpedo tube mounts that had not been ready in time for the "V"s.

Late in the war, an additional order was placed for a large number of Modified "W" class destroyers, most of which were cancelled.

Overview of 21 vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Wakeful	John Brown & Company		6 Oct, 1917		Torpedoed 29 May, 1940
Watchman	John Brown & Company		2 Nov, 1917		23 Jul, 1945
Walpole	William Doxford & Sons		12 Feb, 1918		8 Feb, 1945
Whitley	William Doxford & Sons		13 Apr, 1918		Bombed 19 May, 1940
Walker	William Denny & Brothers		29 Nov, 1917		15 Mar, 1946
Westcott	William Denny & Brothers		14 Feb, 1918		8 Jan, 1946
Walrus	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company		27 Dec, 1917		Stranded 12 Feb, 1938
Wolfhound	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company		14 Mar, 1918		18 Feb, 1948
Warwick	Hawthorn Leslie & Company		28 Dec, 1917		Torpedoed 20 Feb, 1944
Wessex	Hawthorn Leslie & Company		12 Mar, 1918		Sunk 24 May, 1940
Voyager	Alexander Stephen & Sons		8 May, 1918		Grounded 23 Sep, 1942
Whirlwind	Swan Hunter		15 Dec, 1917		Torpedoed 5 Jul, 1940
Wrestler	Swan Hunter		25 Feb, 1918		20 Jul, 1944
Winchelsea	J. Samuel White		15 Dec, 1917		20 Mar, 1945
Winchester	J. Samuel White		1 Feb, 1918		5 Mar, 1946
Westminster	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company		1918		4 Mar, 1947
Windsor	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company		21 Jun, 1918		4 Mar, 1947
Wryneck	Palmer Shipbuilding and Iron Company		13 May, 1918		Sunk 27 Apr, 1941
Waterhen	Palmer Shipbuilding and Iron Company		26 Mar, 1918		Foundered 30 Jun, 1941
Wolsey	John I. Thornycroft & Company		16 Mar, 1918		4 Mar, 1947
Woolston	John I. Thornycroft & Company		27 Apr, 1918		18 Feb, 1947

Armament

4-in Guns

• Four 4-in Q.F. Mark V guns on C.P. II mountings

Torpedoes

• Two 21-in T.R. Mark I tubes (2x3)

This new mounting inaugurated the triple tube format for the Royal Navy, offering destroyers three times the ready torpedo numbers of destroyers designed just six years previously..

In mid-1920, it was ordered that "S", "V" and "W" class destroyers should be allocated the 21-in Mark IV* torpedo.

Fire Control

Mid 1916 Outfit

Experiments from February with two Grand Fleet destroyers employing dumaresqs and Vickers Range Clocks and voicepipes showed definite advantages over ships using unaided spotting and voicepipes, even when the crews had no special training in the new equipment. Tests were also conducted to find a rangefinder suitable to the lively and cramped platform that destroyers provided. This led to an order on 3 April, 1916 that each T.B.D. of "M" class and later should be equipped with:

• one Waymouth-Cooke sextant rangefinder
• one Vickers Range Clock
• one Dumaresq
• range and deflection receivers at each gun

Two ratings, trained before coming aboard, were added to the crew to work the equipment. The clocks and rangefinders were issued in the following three months, and the dumaresqs a few months later. The data instruments did not become available in numbers until 1917. By mid-1917, the whole system was broadly in place in the destroyers of the Grand Fleet and in the Harwich Force. It seems likely that this class would have followed on the same pattern.^[Inference]

In 1918, it was ordered that the Scott class flotilla leaders and destroyers of "V" and "W" classes should have range and deflection receivers for their 3-in H.A. guns and fire gongs worked off the firing key used for the ships' L.A. weaponry.

Directors

Firing Circuits

Training and Slewing Circuits

In 1917, it was approved that the "V" class and later destroyers should all receive installations of the British Destroyer Director Firing System, but none of these installations were completed prior to 1918.

The Director Firing Handbook, 1917 reports that they were to receive Small Type Training Receivers of pattern number 20 on #1, #2 guns, and pattern number 21 on #3 and #4.

On 26 April, 1918, Wolsey had her director tilt tested at Southampton.

In 1918, it was ordered that those destroyers with director installations were to additionally receive:

• a voice pipe from T.S. to director
• a fire gong at director worked from existing push in T.S.
• a fire gong push on fore bridge to be added, wired in parallel to that in the T.S.
• the repeat receivers on the fore bridge were to be positioned so as to be visible to the director sightsetter.

Rangefinders

By 1921, all four-gun destroyers mounted a 1m F.T. 27 RF on a M.H. 37 mounting or a 9ft F.Q. 2 on an M.Q. 12 mount on their fore bridge.

Torpedo Control

Torpedo Control Circuits in "W" class

Chadburn's Order and Deflection Equipment

The destroyers had sighting positions on both sides of a bridge that had been enlarged from earlier destroyers with firing pushes and keys for sounding buzzers at the tubes. The Chadburn's Torpedo Telegraph transmitters for both order and deflection transmitters were situated centrally on a panel on the bridge, between the two sights. Battery-worked electrical firing and firing gongs augmented this arrangement.

Alterations

By November 1918, Warwick and Whirlwind were operating out of Dover and were equipped to carry 74 "M" type sinker mines. The torpedo tubes and guns removed when the mines were shipped could be placed back aboard with enough notice.

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Admiralty, Technical History Section (1920). The Technical History and Index: Alteration in Armaments of H.M. Ships during the War. Vol. 4, Part 34. C.B. 1515 (34) now O.U. 6171/20. At The National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892-1953. London: Seeley Service & Co. Limited. (on Bookfinder.com).
• Gray, Randal (editor) (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).