TRIBAL CLASS

Evening Post, Issue 77, 31 March 1936, Page 11

TRIBAL CLASS

NEW BRITISH DESTROYERS

The following announcement ii made by the Admiralty, says "Th< Times": — Subject to the settlement of certair points of detail, the Admiralty hav< decided to entrust the construction o: the seven Tribal class destroyers t( the following firms:— Messrs. Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness.—H,M. ships Afridi and Cossack. Messrs. Fairfield Shipbuilding anc Engineering Co., Ltd., Govan, Glas. gOW ,_H.M. ships Ghurka and Maori. Messrs. John I. Thornycroft and Co. I Ltd., Southampton.—H.M. ships Mo hawk and Nubian. Messrs. Alexander Stephen anc Sons, Ltd., Glasgow.—H.M. ship Zulu. The newspaper's naval correspond ent writes: —• . This is the flotilla additional to the normal replacement building which, the Admiralty have decided to provide in view of developments abroad. The original provision for destroyers in the 1935 Estimates was for one flotilla, nine vessels, a repeat order of those of the 1934 programme, of 1350 tons. In the Supplementary Navy Estimates provision is made for another flotilla of seven vessels, larger and faster, the displacement being 1850 tons. Lord Stanley explained that the Admiralty viewed with some concern the building of large destroyers by France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, all of which had destroyers ranging from 1600 to 2000 tons displacement. The seven new vessels will co>r about the same as nine of the smaller class. The value of each ship will therefore be about £380,000. ALIOCATION OF ORDERS. It may be more than a coincidence that the four firms which receive orders are the same which shared the destroyer contracts under the 1933 programme, the vessels of which are just being completed. Vickers-Armstrongs built the Greyhound and the Griffin, the Fairfield Company the Garland'and the Gipsy, Thornycrofts the Glowworm and the Graf ton, and Stephen and Sons the Gallant and the Grenade. Eight other firms received orders for destroyers "jader the 1934 and 1935 I programmes. Allocation is therefore being made as equitably and economically as possible, for as men are released from the Greyhound class they can start on the Tribal class. The original Tribal class was begun in 1906 and was contemporary with the Dreadnought. As that ship outclassed her predecessors, so the Tribal class were larger, faster, and better armed than all earlier destroyers, and oil firing was adopted exclusively. In Ihe war they formed part of the Dover Patrol, and many thousands of officers and men crossing to or from France knew them. In 1916 the Nubian had her forepart blown ofr by a torpedo, and about the same time the Zulu was mined and lost her stern. The bow of the Zulu was built on to the stern of the Nubian and the composite ship was known as the Zubian. Most of the Tribal class names were used for the first time in 1907-09, but of those names which have a history the oldest is Mohawk. Six vessels have borne this Indian tribe name since about 1798. Cossack also has a history as a ship name going back to 1807 and has been borne by four vessels.