Hardy-class destroyer

Class overview
NameHardy class
BuildersWilliam Doxford & Sons, Sunderland
Operators Royal Navy
Preceded byCharger class
Succeeded byJanus class
Built1895
In commission1895–1912
Completed2
Retired2
General characteristics
TypeTorpedo boat destroyer
Displacement260 long tons (264 t) (light); 325 long tons (330 t) (full load)
Length200 ft 3 in (61.04 m) (overall); 196 ft (60 m) (between perpendiculars)
Beam19 ft (5.8 m)
Draught7 ft 9 in (2.36 m)
Propulsion2 sets vertical triple expansion engines; 8 Yarrow boilers
Speed27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Complement53
Armament

Two Hardy-class destroyers served with the Royal Navy. HMS Hardy and HMS Haughty were both built by Doxford, ordered on 3 November 1893. They were fitted with 8 Yarrow boilers. They displaced 260 tons, were 196 feet long and were armed with one twelve pounder quick-firing gun mounted forward and five 6-pounder guns, mounted on the broadside and aft, and two torpedo tubes on a revolving mount. They carried 53 officers and men, and served in home waters (although Hardy was briefly in the Mediterranean in 1900) before being sold off in 1911 and 1912 respectively.

As part of the 1893–1894 Naval Estimates, the British Admiralty placed orders for 36 torpedo-boat destroyers, all to be capable of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph), the "27-knotters", as a follow-on to the six prototype "26-knotters" ordered in the previous 1892–1893 Estimates. As was typical for torpedo craft at the time, the Admiralty left detailed design to the builders, laying down only broad requirements.[1][2]

  1. ^ Chesneau and Kolesnik 1979, p. 87.
  2. ^ Manning 1961, p. 39.