HMS ''Derby'' was a
Hunt-class minesweeper of the ''Aberdare''
sub-class built for the
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 ...
during
World War I
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 ...
. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War and survived the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to be sold for scrap in 1946.
Design and description
The ''Aberdare'' sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced at normal load. They had a
length between perpendiculars of
[ and measured ]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, and ...
. The ''Aberdare''s had 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 . The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.[Gardiner & Gray, p. 98]
The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Yarrow boilers. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . They carried a maximum of of coal[ which gave them a range of at .][Cocker, p. 76]
The ''Aberdare'' sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) gun forward of the bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
and a QF twelve-pounder (76.2 mm) anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
aft.[ Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.][ Ships that served in the Second World War initially had two machine guns installed in the bridge wings. Later the four-inch gun was replaced by another twelve-pounder and the machine guns were replaced by Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. Later still another pair of Oerlikons was mounted in the stern.][Lenton, p. 250]
Construction and career
She was originally to be named ''Dawlish'', but was renamed before launch to avoid possible misunderstandings of having vessels named after coastal locations.
See also
*Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Derby
Hunt-class minesweepers (1916)
Royal Navy ship names
1918 ships