Charger-class destroyer

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 Dasher
Class overview
Name: Charger class
Builders: Yarrow Shipbuilders, Cubitt Town
Operators:  Royal Navy
Preceded by: Ardent class
Succeeded by: Hardy class
Built: 1894–1895
In commission: 1894–1912
Completed: 3
Retired: 3
General characteristics
Type: Torpedo boat destroyer
Displacement: 255 long tons (259 t) light; 295 long tons (300 t) full load
Length: 195 ft (59 m) overall; 190 ft 8 in (58.12 m) between perpendiculars
Beam: 18.5 ft (5.6 m)
Draught: 7.25 ft (2.2 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Complement: 50 (later raised to 53)
Armament:

Charger, Dasher and Hasty were built by Yarrow Shipbuilders to their builders' design at a contract price of £108,600, or £36,200 each,[1] It was originally intended that they would be armed with one 12-pounder quick-firing gun forward and three 6-pounder guns, mounted on the broadside and aft, and three 18-inch torpedo tubes, one fixed in a bow mount and two on a revolving mount abaft the two funnels;[2] however the fixed bow tube fitted in the preceding '26-knotter' type had subsequently been found to throw up too much spray and was removed, and in October 1893 it was agreed that the bow tube should be omitted, giving "a clean sharp stem with no projections"[3] and instead two extra 6-pounder guns were installed en echelon amidships. These three ships - and the similar three Ardent Class destroyers (ordered from Thornycroft in the same week) - were the first TBDs to omit this fixed bow tube. They carried a complement of 2 officers and 48 ratings (comprising 20 deck department and 28 engine room compartment).[4]

These three ships did not quite meet the speed requirement of 27 knots for which they were designed. In three-hour trials they averaged the following power (ihp) and speed:

NameTrials ihpTrials speed
(knots)		R.P.M.Displacement
(tons)
Charger3,17725.82364.6229
Dasher3,21626.2361.5233
Hasty2,96026.084361.7233

Their original two locomotive boilers were very troublesome and in their first few years of service the three ships were out of commission most of the time, but these were replaced by four new water-tube boilers (from Thornycroft) in 1899/1900 at Earle's Shipbuilding yard at Kingston upon Hull.[5] This replaced the original closely-spaced twin funnels by three widely-spaced funnels (with the middle funnel twice the size of the others, as it served two boilers), like the majority of the other destroyers of the 1893-1894 Programme, and the ships continued to provide good service - all serving in Home waters until 1911. They were then decommissioned and all three were sold in 1912 to be scrapped.

Vessels in class
NameBuilderYard
Number		Laid downLaunchedCompletedFate
ChargerYarrow Shipbuilders991November 189315 September 1894January 1896Sold 14 May 1912
DasherYarrow Shipbuilders992December 189328 November 1894March 1896Sold 14 May 1912
HastyYarrow Shipbuilders993December 189316 June 1894May 1896Sold 9 July 1912

Notes
  1. Lyon, op.cit., pp.56.
  2. "HMS Ardent Association Online". hmsardent.org.uk. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  3. Lyon, op.cit., pp.98.
  4. Lyon, op.cit., pp.206.
  5. Lyon, op.cit., pp.56.

Bibliography
  • Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
  • Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
  • Lyon, David (2001) [1996]. The First Destroyers. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-364-8.
  • Manning, T. D. (1961). The British Destroyer. Putnam & Co. OCLC 6470051.
  • March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
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