HMS ''Ardent'' was one of 20 s built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. Completed in 1914 she saw active service in the First World War, and was sunk at the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland (german: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of the Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy ...

in 1916.

Design and description

The ''Acasta'' class was based on an enlarged , a very fast Yarrow Special of the .March, p. 125 ''Ardent'' was ordered to evaluate

William Denny & Brothers William Denny and Brothers Limited, often referred to simply as Denny, was a Scottish shipbuilding company. History The shipbuilding interests of the Denny family date back to William Denny (born 1779), for whom ships are recorded being built ...

' recently developed

longitudinal framing Longitudinal framing (also called the Isherwood system after British naval architect Sir Joseph Isherwood, who patented it in 1906) is a method of ship construction in which large, widely spaced transverse frames are used in conjunction with li ...

method of building which offered greater

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

strength for a given weight than conventional transverse construction. The ''Acasta''s had an overall length of , 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 normal draught of .Gardiner & Gray, p. 75 The ships displaced at deep load and their crew numbered 73 officers and ratings.Friedman, p. 295 The destroyers were powered by a single

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

that drove two propeller shafts using steam provided by Yarrow boilers. ''Ardent'' differed from her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s in that she had only three rather than four boilers and only two

funnels A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...

. The engines developed a total of and were designed for a speed of . The ship reached a speed of during her sea trials. The ''Acasta''s had a range of at a cruising speed of . The primary armament of the ships consisted of three BL Mk VIII guns in single, unprotected

pivot mount A pivot gun was a type of cannon mounted on a fixed central emplacement which permitted it to be moved through a wide horizontal arc. They were a common weapon aboard ships and in land fortifications for several centuries but became obsolete aft ...

s. ''Ardent'' had one gun on the forecastle, one on a platform between her funnels and the third aft of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. The destroyers were equipped with a pair of single rotating mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes amidships and carried two reload torpedoes.

Construction and career

HMS ''Ardent'', the seventh Royal Navy ship to bear the name, was ordered under the 1911–1912 Naval Programme from William Denny & Brothers. The ship was laid down at the company's Dumbarton shipyard on 9 October 1911, launched on 8 September 1912 and commissioned in February 1914. She joined the

4th Destroyer Flotilla The British 4th Destroyer Flotilla , or Fourth Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from August 1909 to July 1951. History In 1907 the Home Fleet had a large formation of destroyers called the Home Fleet Flotilla of destr ...

on completion, and served with the Grand Fleet on the outbreak of the First World War. She was sunk on 1 June 1916 during the

by secondary fire from the German dreadnought . Seventy-eight men went down with the ship; there were only two survivors. The wrecksite is designated as a ''protected place'' under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

Pennant numbers

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Battle of Jutland Crew Lists Project - HMS ''Ardent'' Crew List
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ardent 1913 Acasta-class destroyers World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1916 Ships sunk at the Battle of Jutland Protected Wrecks of the United Kingdom 1913 ships