The visually identical Greyhound underway in 1906 | |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Mermaid class |
Operators | Royal Navy |
Built | 1896–1898 |
In commission | 1897–1919 |
Completed | 2 |
Lost | 1 |
Scrapped | 1 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Destroyer |
Displacement |
|
Length | 214 ft 6 in (65.38 m) overall |
Beam | 21 ft 1 in (6.43 m) |
Draught | 13 ft (4.0 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
Complement | 62 |
Armament |
|
Two Mermaid-class destroyers served with the Royal Navy during the First World War.[2] They were three-funnelled turtle-backed destroyers with the usual Hawthorn funnel tops. Built in 1896–1898, Mermaid and Cheerful were launched by R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie & Company from their Hebburn-on-Tyne shipyard.
Their Thornycroft boilers produced 6,100 hp to given them the required 30 knots (56 km/h) and they were armed with the standard 12-pounder gun and two torpedo tubes. They carried a complement of 63 officers and men. In 1913 the pair - like all other surviving three-funnelled destroyers of the "30-knotter" group - were reclassed as C-class destroyers. The almost identical Greyhound-class ships built subsequently at the same yard differed only by having Yarrow boilers.
References
- ↑ Lyon, The First Destroyers, p. 93
- ↑ "Mermaid-class at BattleshipsCruisers.co.uk". Retrieved 2 April 2009.
- Lyon, David (2001) [1996]. The First Destroyers. Shipshape monographs. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-364-8.