Greek destroyer Aetos

Destroyer Aetos
History
Greece
Name:	Aetos Α/Τ Άετός
Namesake:	eagle
Ordered:	1912
Builder:	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down:	1911
Launched:	19 September 1912
Commissioned:	1912
Decommissioned:	1945
Fate:	broken up
General characteristics
Class and type:	Wild Beast-class destroyer
Displacement:	880 tons standard
Length:	89.4 m (293 ft)
Beam:	8.3 m (27 ft)
Draft:	3 m (9.8 ft)
Propulsion:	5 × Foster Wheeler boilers (4 coal-fired and 1 oil-fired), replaced by Yarrow oil-fired boilers in 1925 5 funnels combined Parsons and Curtis steam turbines
Speed:	31 knots (57 km/h) maximum (32 knots (59 km/h) after 1925)
Complement:	58
Armament:	As completed: 4 × Bethlehem 4-inch (102 mm) guns 1 × 75 mm anti-aircraft gun 6 × 21-inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes 3 × electric search lights 1925: 75 mm gun removed 37 mm anti-aircraft gun added four-barrel 40 mm gun added 2 mortars added Modified for laying 40 mines 1942: 3rd and 4th stern torpedo launchers removed 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun added 1 × 20 mm Oerlikon gun added A/S type 123A detection device added

Aetos (Greek: Α/Τ Άετός, "Eagle") was a Wild Beast-class destroyer which served in the Royal Hellenic Navy from 1912–1945.

The ship, along with her three sister ships Ierax, Panthir and Leon, was ordered from England. They were purchased in 1912, ready for delivery, each for the sum of £148,000, from the English shipyards Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, when the Balkan Wars seemed likely. These ships had originally been ordered by Argentina; Aetos was originally named San Luis. The four ships were sailing with a non-Greek crew to Algiers, to meet the requisitioned personnel transport ship Ionia which contained the Greek crews for the ships. When Aetos entered the Mediterranean she went adrift due to a serious engine breakdown. By pure coincidence one of the other destroyers passed nearby and towed Aetos to Algiers.

During the Balkan Wars, the Royal Hellenic Navy purchased only the minimum amount of ammunition. Torpedoes were not available for this class of ship, and for this reason these ships were initially named 'scouts' rather than 'destroyers'. She was under the command of Commander A. Douroutis, RHN.

During the First World War, Greece belatedly entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente. Due to Greece's neutrality, the four Wild Beast-class ships were seized by the Allies in October 1916, taken over by the French in November, and served in the French Navy from 1917-18. By 1918, they were back on escort duty under Greek colors, mainly in the Aegean Sea.

...
Wikipedia