Jason | |
Class overview | |
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Name | Alarm-class torpedo gunboat |
Builders |
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Operators | Royal Navy |
Preceded by | Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat |
Succeeded by | Dryad-class torpedo gunboat |
Built | 1892–1893 |
In commission | 1893–1924 |
Completed | 11 |
Lost | 3 |
Scrapped | 8 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Torpedo gunboat |
Displacement | 810 tons |
Length | 242 ft (74 m) |
Beam | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
Draught | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) maximum |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 18.7 kn (34.6 km/h) |
Complement | 91 |
Armament |
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The Alarm-class torpedo gunboat was the penultimate class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy. The class was contemporary with the early torpedo boat destroyers, which were faster and thus better suited to pursuit of enemy torpedo boats. By World War I the class had either been sold, converted to submarine depot ships or minesweepers, or reduced to harbour service. Three of the class were lost during World War I while serving in the minesweeping role.
The Alarm class was designed by Sir William White in 1889 as an enlarged version of his previous Sharpshooter class. They had a length overall of 242 ft (74 m), a beam of 27 ft (8.2 m) and a displacement of 810 tons. They were engined with two sets of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, two locomotive boilers, and twin screws. This layout produced 3,500 indicated horsepower (2,600 kW), giving them a speed of 18.7 knots (34.6 km/h; 21.5 mph) with forced draught. They carried between 100 and 160 tons of coal and were manned by 91 sailors and officers.
While officially classed with the Alarm class, the Speedy was actually a separate design. The Naval Defence Act of 1889 authorised the purchase of an Alarm-class torpedo gunboat built to a design by John I. Thornycroft & Company and built in their yard at Chiswick. Speedy was a three-funnelled vessel (compared to the two-funnelled Admiralty design), but the key difference was the use of water-tube boilers instead of locomotive-type boilers; she produced at least 5,000 indicated horsepower (3,700 kW) and could make 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph). The use of water-tube boilers was a key feature of the new torpedo boat destroyers that would make torpedo gunboats (including the Alarm class) obsolete.
At build the class was fitted with two QF 4.7-inch (12 cm)/45-pounder guns, four 3-pounder guns and one Gardner machine gun. Five 14-inch (360 mm) torpedo tubes were fitted in the first five vessels, but this was changed to three 18-inch (450mm) torpedo tubes in the rest of the class. They were arranged as a pair of revolving deck mounts, a pair of fixed deck mounts (deleted in the later vessels) and a single bow-mounted tube; three reloads were provided.
Name | Ship Builder | Laid down | Launched | Completed | Fate |
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Jason | Naval Construction & Armament, Barrow | 7 September 1891 | 14 May 1892 | June 1893 | Became a minesweeper in 1909. Sunk by a mine off the west coast of Scotland on 7 April 1917 |
Circe | Sheerness Dockyard | 11 January 1890 | 14 June 1892 | May 1893 | Became a minesweeper in 1909. Sold for breaking on 30 July 1920 |
Hebe | Sheerness Dockyard | 11 January 1890 | 15 June 1892 | 9 October 1894 | Became a minesweeper in 1909. Became a depot ship for submarines in 1910 (guns retained). Sold for breaking on 22 October 1919 |
Onyx | Laird Brothers, Birkenhead | 8 October 1891 | 7 September 1892 | January 1894 | Became a depot ship for submarines in 1907 (armament removed). Renamed Vulcan II in June 1919 (or April 1920?). Sold for breaking in August 1924 and resold on 9 October 1924 |
Leda | Sheerness Dockyard | 25 June 1891 | 13 September 1892 | November 1893 | Became a minesweeper in 1909. Sold for breaking on 14 July 1920 and broken up in Germany in 1922 |
Alarm | Sheerness Dockyard | 25 June 1891 | 13 September 1892 | March 1894 | Sold for breaking on 9 April 1907 |
Jaseur | Naval Construction & Armament, Barrow | 14 September 1891 | 24 September 1892 | July 1893 | Sold on 11 July 1905 |
Renard | Laird Brothers, Birkenhead | 26 October 1891 | 6 December 1892 | January 1894 | Sold for breaking on 4 April 1905 |
Niger | Naval Construction & Armament, Barrow | 17 September 1891 | 17 December 1892 | 25 April 1893 | Became a minesweeper in 1909. Torpedoed by U-12 off Deal on 11 November 1914 |
Speedy | Thornycroft, Chiswick | 4 January 1892 | 18 May 1893 | 20 February 1894 | Became a minesweeper in 1909. Sunk by a mine off the Humber on 3 September 1914 |
Antelope | Devonport Dockyard | 21 October 1889 | 12 July 1893 | May 1894 | Reduced to harbour service in 1910 and used as training ship at Devonport. Sold for breaking on 27 May 1919 |
HMS Antelope was a Royal Navy Alarm-class torpedo gunboat. She was launched in 1893, reduced to harbour service from 1910 and was sold for scrapping in 1919.
HMS Hussar was a Dryad-class torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1894 and served in the Mediterranean between 1896 and 1905 before being used for fishery protection. During the Dardanelles campaign of 1915 her commanding officer and two of her ship's company won the Victoria Cross. She was broken up in 1921.
The Havock class was a class of torpedo boat destroyer (TBD) of the British Royal Navy. The two ships, Havock and Hornet, built in London in 1893 by Yarrow & Company, were the first TBDs to be completed for the Royal Navy, although the equivalent pair from J.I. Thornycroft, Daring and Decoy, were ordered five days earlier.
In late 19th-century naval terminology, torpedo gunboats were a form of gunboat armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. By the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were superseded by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers.
The D class as they were known from 1913 was a fairly homogeneous group of torpedo boat destroyers (TBDs) built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s. They were all constructed to the individual designs of their builder, John I. Thornycroft & Company of Chiswick, to meet Admiralty specifications. The uniting feature of the class was a top speed of 30 knots and they all had two funnels.
Two Daring-class destroyers were the very first torpedo boat destroyers ("TBDs") to be ordered for the Royal Navy, the order being placed on 27 June 1892.
The three Charger-class destroyers were all ordered by the British Admiralty on 12 October 1893 and on completion in early 1896 they served with the Royal Navy until 1911.
HMS Hasty was a Charger-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy. She was launched by Yarrow Shipbuilders in 1894, served in home waters and was sold off in 1912.
HMS Dasher was a Charger-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders in 1895, served in home waters and was sold in 1911.
HMS Fervent was a Fervent-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy. Fervent was launched on 28 March 1895 at Paisley.
HMS Zephyr was one of two Fervent-class destroyers which served with the Royal Navy. She was launched on 10 May 1895 from Hanna, Donald & Wilson at Paisley, Scotland. She served in home waters, and was sold in 1920.
Two Swordfish-class destroyers served with the Royal Navy. Swordfish and Spitfire were both built by Armstrong Whitworth at Elswick, Tyne and Wear launching in 1895. Fitted with Yarrow boilers, they could make 27 knots and were armed with one twelve pounder and two torpedo tubes.
HMS Dryad was the name ship of the Dryad-class torpedo gunboats. She was launched at Chatham Dockyard on 22 November 1893, the first of the class to be completed. She served as a minesweeper during World War I and was broken up in 1920.
The Dryad-class torpedo gunboat was the last class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy. This type of vessel was rapidly replaced by the faster torpedo boat destroyer, and all of the class were converted to minesweepers during World War I, with the exception of Hazard, which became a submarine depot ship.
HMS Rattlesnake was a unique design of torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead. Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.
The Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat was a class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. One of the class was hulked in 1904, seven were scrapped before World War I and five were converted to minesweepers. Of these minesweepers, Seagull was lost to a collision in 1918 and the rest survived the war to be broken up in the early 1920s.
HMS Karakatta was an Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy, launched in 1889. She was part of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station from 1890 until 1903, and was sold in 1905.
The Grasshopper-class torpedo gunboat was a class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. All three ships were scrapped before World War I.
HMS Speedy was a Alarm-class torpedo gunboat of the British Royal Navy. She was built by Thornycroft from 1892–1894. She was converted to a minesweeper in 1908–1909 and continued these duties during the First World War. Speedy was sunk by a German mine on 3 September 1914.
HMS Alarm was a torpedo gunboat of the British Royal Navy and the name ship of her class. Alarm was built by Sheerness Dockyard from 1891–1894. She was sold for scrap in 1907.