Beagle-class destroyer

HMS Scourge at Mudros, May 1916
Class overview
Name:	Beagle-class (or G-class)
Builders:	John Brown & Company J. Samuel White & Company Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company William Denny & Brothers Cammell Laird & Company Harland & Wolff R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company John I. Thornycroft & Company
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Tribal class
Succeeded by:	Acorn class
Built:	1909 – 1910
In commission:	1910 – 1921
Completed:	16
Lost:	3
Scrapped:	13
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	860–940 long tons (874–955 t)
Length:	275 ft (83.8 m)
Beam:	27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Draught:	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Installed power:	12,500 hp (9,300 kW)
Propulsion:	Coal-fired boilers, 2 or 3 shaft steam turbines
Speed:	27 knots (50.0 km/h; 31.1 mph)
Complement:	96
Armament:	1 × BL 4-inch (102 mm) L/40 Mark VIII guns, mounting P Mark V 3 × QF 12-pounder 12 cwt Mark I, mounting P Mark I 2 × single 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes

The Beagle class (officially redesignated as the G class in 1913) was a class of sixteen destroyers of the Royal Navy, all ordered under the 1908-1909 programme and launched in 1909 and 1910. The Beagles served during World War I, particularly during the Dardanelles Campaign of 1915.

For the 1908–1909 shipbuilding programme, the British Admiralty decided to revert to a smaller, more affordable destroyer to follow-on from the large and fast Tribal-class (required to reach 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)) and the experimental 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) HMS Swift. The destroyers needed sufficient range to operate across the North Sea in the event of a confrontation with Germany, which rendered the Cricket-class coastal destroyers which had been built as a low-cost supplement to the expensive Tribals outdated, requiring larger numbers of a cheaper standard destroyer. While the Tribals were oil fuelled, it was decided to return to the use of coal for the new destroyers, because of concerns over the availability of oil stocks in the event of a war and to reduce costs. They were the last British destroyers to be so fueled.

The Beagles were not built to a standard design, with detailed design being left to the builders of individual ships in accordance with a loose specification. They were between 263 feet 11 ¹⁄₄ inches (80.45 m) and 275 feet (83.82 m) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of between 26 feet 10 inches (8.18 m) and 28 feet 1 inch (8.56 m), with an average draught of 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m). It was expected that the ships would displace 850 long tons (860 t) but the builder's designs came out heavier, at about 945 long tons (960 t) normal and 1,100 long tons (1,120 t) full load. Five Yarrow or White-Forster boilers fed direct-drive steam turbines driving three propeller shafts. The machinery was rated at 14,300 shaft horsepower (10,700 kW) to give a speed of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph). Three funnels were fitted.