HMS Viking (1909)

HMS ''Viking'' was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched in 1909 and sold for scrap in 1919. She was the only destroyer ever to have six funnels.

Construction and design

HMS ''Viking'' was one of five Tribal-class destroyers ordered as part of the Royal Navy's 1907–08 shipbuilding programme. She was laid down at Palmers' Jarrow shipyard on 11 June 1908 and was launched on 14 September 1909.Friedman 2009, p. 305. The Tribal-class destroyers were to be powered by steam turbines and use oil-fuel rather than coal, and be capable of , but detailed design was left to the builders, which meant that individual ships of the class differed greatly.Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 72.Friedman 2009, pp. 106–109.

''Viking'' was long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of . Normal displacement was , with full load displacement .Friedman 2009, p. 294. She had a turtleback forecastle topped by a raised forward gun platform that also carried the ship's bridge. The raised gun platform acted as a breakwater, causing heavy spray that made it difficult to work the forward gun or use the bridge.Friedman 2009, p. 205. Six Yarrow boilers fed steam at to Parsons steam turbines, giving and driving three propeller shafts. The outtakes from the boilers were fed to six funnels, making ''Viking'' the Royal Navy's only six-funneled destroyer. Range was at .Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 71.

Gun armament consisted of two 4 inch guns, the 12-pounder guns carried by earlier Tribals having been proved ineffective by trials against the old destroyer HMS ''Skate'' in 1906.Friedman 2009, pp. 108–109.Brown 2003, p. 178. Two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes were carried. The ship had a complement of 71.

''Viking'' was commissioned in June 1910, having reached a speed of during sea trials.

Service

On commissioning, ''Viking'' joined the First Destroyer Flotilla, remaining part of that unit until 1913. In October that year, the Tribals were officially designated the F class, and as such the letter "F" was painted on ''Afridi''s bows.Burt 1986, pp. 26–27.

In February 1914, the Tribals, whose range was too short for effective open sea operations, were sent to Dover, forming the 6th Destroyer Flotilla. On the outbreak of the First World War, the 6th Flotilla formed the basis of the Dover Patrol,Friedman 2009, p. 139. with which the Tribal class, including ''Viking'' served for the duration of the war.Burt 1986, pp. 22–23.Bacon 1918 Volume II, p. 626.

In October 1914, the Dover Patrol was deployed to help support Belgian ground forces during the Battle of the Yser, carrying out shore bombardment operations. ''Viking'' suffered an explosion of its forward gun, wounding two and causing the ship to be withdrawn from the operations.Bacon 1918 Volume II, pp. 611–612. (''Viking'' was later awarded the Battle Honour "Belgian Coast 1914–18").

On 20 February 1915, ''Viking'' was patrolling anti submarine nets in the Dover strait when she saw indicator buoys being disturbed, and in the belief that this was due to a submarine being caught on the nets, called up several destroyers, including sister ship and drifters to investigate. Although an explosive anti-submarine sweep was fired, no submarine was damaged. On 4 March 1915, the German submarine became caught in the Dover straits nets, and the resulting disturbance was spotted by the drifter ''Roburn'', which called up the nearby destroyer patrol, including ''Viking'', , and . ''Viking'' fired her explosive sweep with no effect, but after the submarine was spotted by ''Maori'', ''Ghurka'' used her own explosive sweep to force the German submarine to the surface. After briefly being shelled, the submarine was scuttled and abandoned, the crew surrendering.

''Viking'' was damaged after hitting a mine near the Colbart Bank on 29 January 1916. Ten of ''Viking'' s crew were killed. On the night of 26/27 October 1916, German torpedo boats of their Flanders Flotilla carried out a large scale raid into the English Channel, hoping to attack the drifters watching the anti-submarine nets of the Dover Barrage, and to sink Allied shipping in the Channel. ''Viking'' was one of six Tribal-class destroyers waiting at readiness in Dover harbour, and when the Germans attacked the drifters and sank the supporting destroyer , they were ordered to intervene. The destroyers split up as they left Dover harbour, with ''Viking'' leading and from the Western entrance to the port, while the other three destroyers (''Nubian'', and ) left by the other entrance and failed to join up with ''Viking''s group. The group led by ''Viking'' encountered a group of unknown warships. When ''Viking'' challenged the ships (which were in fact the German 18th Half Flotilla), the German ships replied with shellfire that hit ''Mohawk'' and caused her steering to jam. This caused ''Mohawk'' to block the course of ''Viking'' when she attempted to pursue the German torpedo boats, allowing them to escape unharmed. ''Nubian'' and ''Amazon'' separately ran into a second German formation, the 17th Half Flotilla, with ''Nubian'' first being badly damaged by a torpedo and ''Amazon'' then heavily hit by German shells.Newbolt 1928, pp. 55–64.

In 1916, as an attempt to counter the superior range of the 10.5 cm (4.1-in) SK L/45 guns of German torpedo boats, ''Viking'' was experimentally rearmed, replacing the forward 4-inch gun with a BL 6-inch Mk VII (alongside HMS ''Swift'', she was one of only two Royal Navy destroyers ever to carry such a weapon). The 6-inch gun proved too large for the Tribal class, and other ships did not receive this modification. On ''Viking'', it was replaced in late 1916 by a QF 4-inch Mk V gun.Friedman 2009, p. 146.

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External links

HMS ''Viking''
Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viking (1909)
Tribal-class destroyers (1905)
Ships built on the River Tyne
1909 ships
World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom