HMS ''Valhalla'' was an Admiralty V-class

flotilla leader A flotilla leader was a warship of late 19th century and early 20th century navies suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer (known as a destroyer leader). The flot ...

built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

. She was named after the home of the Norse gods. She was one of 2 destroyers ordered in July 1916 from

Cammell Laird Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...

shipyard in Birkenhead under the 9th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1916–17.

Construction

''Valhalla''s keel was laid on 8 August 1916 at the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead. She was launched on 22 May 1917. She was 312 feet overall in length with a beam of 29.5 feet. Her mean draught was 9 feet, and would reach 11.25 feet under full load. She had a displacement of 1,339 tons. She was propelled by three Yarrow-type water tube boilers powering Parsons geared

steam turbines 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 turbi ...

developing and driving two screws for a maximum designed speed of 34 knots. She was oil-fired and had a bunkerage of 320 to 370 tons. This gave a range of 3,500 nautical miles at 15 knots. She was armed with 4 QF Mk V L/45 guns in four single centre-line turrets. The turrets were disposed as two forward and two aft in superimposed firing positions. She also carried one QF 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun aft of the second funnel. Aft of the 3-inch gun, she carried four 21-inch torpedo tubes mounted in pairs on the centre-line.

History

''Valhalla'' was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 31 July 1917. She was deployed in home waters until the end of World War I. In the reorganization of the Royal Navy she was assigned to the

6th Destroyer Flotilla The British 6th Destroyer Flotilla, or Sixth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the Royal Navy from 1911 to 1939 and again from 1947 to 1951 History The flotilla was formed in 1911 at Portsmouth, with its first commander, Captain Mo ...

assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and given the pennant number D44. In the late 1920s she was placed in reserve at Rosyth.

Disposition

In 1931 she was stricken from the active list and scrapped.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * V and W-class destroyers of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Mersey 1919 ships World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom {{UK-destroyer-stub