HMS ''Arab'' (1896 to 1897 Programme) was a

torpedo boat destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in 1 ...

of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. She was laid down by

J & G Thomson John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and the ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its ...

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

and completed by

John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and the ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its ...

who took over the yard.

Construction and design

As part of the 1896–1897 construction programme for the

, the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...

placed orders for thirty

s. Of these ships, 17 were required to meet the standard contract speed of , while the remaining three destroyers, with one each ordered from

Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

Thornycroft Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977. History In 1896, naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company which built its firs ...

and

, were required to reach higher speeds, with Thomson's and Thornycroft's designs (built as ''Arab'' and ) contracted for while Laird's ship, , had a speed of specified.Friedman 2009, p. 53.Lyon 2001, p. 23. ''Arab'' was

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of . She displaced light and full load.Lyon 2001, p. 28. Four coal-fed

Normand boiler Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, an ...

s, with four funnels, fed two triple expansion steam engines rated at which drove two propeller shafts.Lyon 2001, p. 28.Hythe 1912, p. 247. Sufficient coal was carried to give a range of at .Friedman 2009, p. 292. She carried the specified armament for the thirty-knotters of a QF 12-pounder 12 cwt ( calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...

(in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.Lyon 2001, pp. 98–99.Friedman 2009, p. 40. While the ship carried the same armament as normal thirty-knotter destroyers, the more powerful engines needed more coal and hence more stokers were needed to feed the coal to the engines, with ''Arab''s crew being 69 officers and men, compared to 63 for thirty-knotters built by Thomsons.Lyon 2001, p. 106.Manning 1961, pp. 41, 46. Construction work on ''Arab'' was delayed owing to problems during the

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s of the thirty-knotter destroyers built by Thomsons under the 1895–1896 programme, which required significant modification to reach the required speed.Lyon 2001, pp. 23, 47. ''Arab'' was finally laid down on 5 March 1900 and launched on 9 February 1901. ''Arab'' ran 9 trials between 11 March and 27 May 1901, but like the other two high-speed destroyers ordered under the 1896–1897 programme, failed to meet the contracted speed, with the maximum speed reached only . She was delivered to the Royal Navy on 20 October 1902, with the Admiralty imposing a £3000 penalty owing to the ships failure to meet contract speed, the final price paid being £63,642.Lyon 2001, p. 29.Friedman 2009, p. 58.

Service

''Arab'' served in home waters for the whole of her career. She was commissioned at Portsmouth by Commander

Hubert Brand Admiral Sir Hubert George Brand, (20 May 1870 – 14 December 1955) was a senior Royal Navy officer who served as Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel. Background Brand was the second son of Henry Brand, 2nd Viscount Hampden, Governor ...

on 12 January 1903, to relieve the HMS ''Success'' as senior officer′s ship in the Portsmouth Instructional Flotilla. ''Arab'' was refitted in 1908, having her boilers retubed. In 1910, ''Arab'' was part of the

Fifth Destroyer Flotilla The British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, or Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from 1910 to 1942 and again from 1947 to 1951. History The flotilla was formed in February 1910 and disbanded in 1942. Its first commander ...

at Devonport, serving as part of that flotilla until 1912. On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyers were to be grouped into classes designated by letters based on contract speed and appearance. Four-funneled, 30-knotter destroyers were grouped as the , and ''Arab'' was assigned to this class.Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 18.Manning 1961, pp. 17–18. By March 1913, ''Arab'', still based at Devonport, was part of the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla, one of four flotillas equipped with old destroyers and torpedo boats for patrol purposes. Following the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in August 1914, the Seventh Flotilla moved to the East coast of England.Manning 1961, pp. 15–16. In November 1914 ''Arab'' was transferred to

Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...

as one of a force of 29 destroyers used for local patrols of this vital naval base.Manning 1961, p. 27. In April 1917, the German submarine carried a series of attacks on shipping between

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

in Norway and

Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. ''U-30'' sank five ships on 13 April, and sank another, by gunfire on the morning of 14 April. The crew of the Norwegian merchant ship SS ''Rondane'', sailing astern of ''Fjeldi'', abandoned ship on seeing the attack, but ''Arab'' managed to force ''U-30'' to submerge before the submarine could attack ''Rondane'', allowing the Norwegian ship's crew to reboard her. On 7 July 1917, ''Arab'' was part of the escort of a Norway-bound convoy when a submarine was spotted. The yacht ''Amalthaea'' and whaler ''Pilot Whale'' opened fire on the submarine, while ''Arab'' attacked with depth charges, driving the submarine away from the convoy. On 19 July 1917, ''Arab'' and the destroyer were escorting an east-bound convoy on the Scandinavian (Lerwick–Norway) route, when the convoy came under attack by the German submarine , which sank the Danish steamer . ''Arab'' successfully rescued the 19-strong crew of the merchant ship. ''Arab'' remained based at Scapa until January 1918, but then transferred to the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

as part of the

Methil Methil (Scottish Gaelic: Meadhchill) is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as ov ...

Convoy Flotilla. By May 1918, ''Arab'' transferred to the Seventh Flotilla, based on the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

, remaining there until the end of the war. ''Arab'' was sold for scrap on 23 July 1919.Dittmar and Colledge 1972, p. 57.

Pennant numbers

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arab (1901) B-class destroyers (1913) Ships built on the River Clyde 1901 ships World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom