A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.
The Type 12 or Whitby-class frigates were a six-ship class of anti-submarine frigates of the Royal Navy, which entered service late in the 1950s. They were designed in the early 1950s as first-rate ocean-going convoy escorts, in the light of experience gained during World War II. At this time, the Royal Navy were designing single-role escorts and the Whitbys were designed as fast convoy escorts capable of tackling high-speed submarines. However, this made the Whitbys more expensive and sophisticated to produce in large numbers in the event of a major war, and so the Type 14 "utility" or "second-rate" anti-submarine frigate was developed to complement the Type 12. Although themselves rapidly outdated, the Type 12 proved to be an excellent basis for a series of frigate designs used by the British and Commonwealth navies for the next 20 years.
The Battle class were a class of destroyers of the British Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN), named after naval or other battles fought by British or English forces. Built in three groups, the first group were ordered under the 1942 naval estimates. A modified second and third group, together with two ships of an extended design were planned for the 1943 and 1944 estimates. Most of these ships were cancelled when it became apparent that the war was being won and the ships would not be required, although two ships of the third group, ordered for the RAN, were not cancelled and were subsequently completed in Australia.
The Daring class was a class of eleven destroyers built for the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Constructed after World War II, and entering service during the 1950s, eight ships were constructed for the RN, and three ships for the RAN. Two of the RN destroyers were subsequently sold to and served in the Peruvian Navy (MGP). A further eight ships were planned for the RN but were cancelled before construction commenced, while a fourth RAN vessel was begun but was cancelled before launch and broken up on the slipway.
The County class was a class of heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the years between the First and Second World Wars. They were the first post-war cruisers constructed for the Royal Navy and were designed within the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons, standard displacement and 8-inch calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers".
The Atlanta-class cruisers were eight United States Navy light cruisers which were designed as fast scout cruisers or flotilla leaders but which proved to be effective anti-aircraft cruisers during World War II. They were also known as the Atlanta-Oakland class. The Atlanta class originally had 16 x 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns in eight two-gun turrets, arranged with three superfiring turrets forward, three more superfiring aft and two waist mounts, one port and one starboard, giving the first four Atlanta-class cruisers the heaviest anti-aircraft armament of any cruiser of World War II. The last four ships of the class, starting with Oakland, had a slightly revised armament with a reduced main gun battery - the waist turrets being deleted - as they were further optimized for anti-aircraft fire in light of war experience.
HMS Corunna (D97) was a later or 1943 Battle-class fleet destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was named in honour of the Battle of Corunna, which took place during the Peninsular War in 1809 between British and French forces. Corunna was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited on the Tyne. She was launched on 29 May 1945 and commissioned on 6 June 1947.
The V and W class was an amalgam of six similar classes of destroyer built for the Royal Navy under the 9th, 10th, 13th and 14th of fourteen War Emergency Programmes during the First World War and generally treated as one class. For their time they were among the most powerful and advanced ships of their type in the world, and set the trend for future British designs.
The L and M class was a class of sixteen destroyers which served in the British Royal Navy during World War II. The ships of the class were launched between 1939 and 1942.
The C class was a class of 32 destroyers of the Royal Navy that were launched from 1943 to 1945. The class was built in four flotillas of 8 vessels, the "Ca", "Ch", "Co" and "Cr" groups or sub-classes, ordered as the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Emergency Flotillas respectively. The sub-class names are derived from the initial 2 letters of the member ships' names, although the "Ca" class were originally ordered with a heterogeneous mix of traditional destroyer names. A fifth flotilla, the "Ce" or 15th Emergency Flotilla, was planned but were cancelled in favour of the Weapon-class destroyers after only the first two ships had been ordered. The pennant numbers were all altered from "R" superior to "D" superior at the close of World War II; this involved some renumbering to avoid duplications.
HMS Ambuscade was a British Royal Navy destroyer which served in the Second World War. She and her Thornycroft competitor, HMS Amazon, were prototypes designed to exploit advances in construction and machinery since World War I and formed the basis of Royal Navy destroyer evolution up to the Tribal of 1936.
HMS Battleaxe was a Weapon-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, completed just after the Second World War.
The War Emergency Programme destroyers were destroyers built for the British Royal Navy during World War I and World War II.
HMS Amazon was a prototype design of destroyer ordered for the Royal Navy in 1924. She was designed and built by Thornycroft in response to an Admiralty request for a new design of destroyer incorporating the lessons and technological advances of the First World War. Their great rivals Yarrow produced a similar, competitive design — that of Ambuscade.
At the start of World War II, the Royal Navy operated a range of destroyer classes. Some of these were legacies of World War I, some were designed during the inter-war years and the rest were the result of wartime experience and conditions. British-built and -designed vessels were also supplied to and built by allied navies, primarily the Australian and Canadian navies.
HMS Broadsword was a Weapon-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy in service from 1948 and scrapped in 1968.
The Minekaze class was a class of fifteen 1st-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Obsolete by the beginning of the Pacific War, the Minekaze-class ships were then relegated to mostly secondary roles, serving throughout the war as patrol vessels, high speed transports, target control vessels, and as kaiten carriers. Most ultimately were lost to U.S. and British submarines. The basic design of the Minekaze was used for the next three classes of Japanese destroyers, a total of 36 ships.
HMS Wallace was a Thornycroft type flotilla leader of the British Royal Navy. Built by J I Thornycroft during the First World War, Wallace was launched on 26 October 1918, and completed in February 1919, after the end of the war.
HMS Tobago was a Thornycroft S-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy during the Greco-Turkish War. Launched by Thornycroft on 15 July 1918, the vessel followed a design typical of the yard by being faster than the majority of the class, and also had better seakeeping properties thanks to a raised forecastle. The destroyer operated as part of the Grand Fleet for the last few weeks of the First World War, and, after the Armistice, joined the Mediterranean Fleet based in Malta. While serving in off the coast of Turkey, the ship hit a mine on 15 July 1920, exactly two years after being launched. Despite the relative youth of the vessel, the damage was deemed irrepairable and so Tobago returned to Malta and was sold for scrap on 9 February 1922.
HMS Tourmaline was a Thornycroft S-class destroyer, which served with the Royal Navy during the Greco-Turkish War and the Russian Civil War. Tourmaline was one of three destroyers ordered from Thornycroft in June 1917 with more powerful geared turbines than the majority of the class as well as design changes that improved seakeeping. Launched on 19 April 1919, the vessel operated as part of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla serving with the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets. After serving in the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara, during which sister ships Speedy and Tobago were lost, Tourmaline led the Gibraltar Local Defence Flotilla. The London Naval Treaty, signed 1930, required the retirement of some destroyers to meet the Royal Navy's tonnage requirement and Tourmaline was chosen for retirement. The destroyer was decommissioned on 28 November 1931 after 12 years of service and broken up.
Royal Navy 