Dryad Class Torpedo Gunboat (1893)

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The five torpedo gunboats of the Dryad Class (also referred to as the Halcyon Class in some sources) were a further revision of the Alarm class, and were built at the same time as the Royal Navy's first destroyers, which quickly took over the torpedo gunboat's intended anti-torpedo boat role.

Overview of five vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name Builder Laid Down Launched Completed Fate
Dryad Chatham Dockyard 15 April, 1893 22 November, 1893 21 July, 1894 Sold 24 September, 1920
Halcyon Devonport Dockyard 2 January, 1893 6 April, 1894 16 May, 1895 Sold 6 November, 1919
Harrier Devonport Dockyard 21 January, 1893 20 February, 1894 8 July, 1896 Sold 23 February, 1920
Hazard Pembroke Dockyard 1 December, 1892 17 February, 1894 24 July, 1895 Sunk 28 January, 1918
Hussar Devonport Dockyard 3 April, 1894 3 July, 1894 3 December, 1896 Sold 13 July, 1921

Construction

The Dryads were enlarged Alarms with a poop added for additional officers' accomodations and the engineering spaces rearranged so that the engines were placed between the boiler rooms instead of abaft of them, a similar arrangement to that used in the contemporary Barham class cruisers.[1] This left the two funnels widely spaced, leading the Dryads to be described as "rather odd-looking ships".[2]

Machinery

All five used locomotive boilers, with much the same results as in the previous Alarms.[3]

Armament

As built, all except Hussar carried:

  • Two 4.7 inch (45-pounder) quick-firing guns
  • Four 6-pounder guns
  • One Nordenfelt five-barrelled machine-gun
  • Five 18-inch torpedo tubes and seven torpedoes.

Hussar's gun armament differed from the others:

  • One 4.7 inch
  • Two 12-pounder guns
  • One 6-pounder gun

Conversions

Dryad, Halcyon, and Harrier were converted to minesweepers in 1914, surrendering two of their torpedo tubes to accomodate the necessary minesweeping gear.[4]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Friedman. British Destroyers. pp. 33-34.
  2. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. p. 90.
  3. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. pp. 89-90.
  4. ↑ Lyon; Winfield. The Steam & Sail List. pp. 306-307.

Bibliography

  • Brown, David K, RCNC (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860 — 1905. London: Chatham Publishing. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
  • Chesneau, Robert; Kolesnik, Eugene (editors) (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
  • Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781591140818 (on Amazon.com).
  • Lyon, David; Winfield, Rif (2004). The Sail & Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy, 1815-1889. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1861760329. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
  • March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892-1953. London: Seeley Service & Co. Limited. (on Bookfinder.com).


Dryad Class Torpedo Gunboat
Dryad Halcyon Harrier Hazard Hussar
<– Alarm Class Small Fry (UK) Heron Class –>
<– Alarm Class Torpedo Gunboats (UK)  



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