HMS Viscount sometime after the May 1940 change of her pennant number to I92.
|
|
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Class and type: | Admiralty V-class destroyer |
Name: | HMS Viscount |
Namesake: | viscount |
Ordered: | 30 June 1916 or July 1916 |
Builder: | John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, Hampshire, England |
Laid down: | 20 December 1916 |
Launched: | 29 December 1917 |
Completed: | 4 March 1918 |
Commissioned: | 4 March 1918 |
Decommissioned: | March 1945 |
Identification: |
|
Motto: | Nobile qui nobilis ("Handsome is as handsome does") |
Honours and awards: |
|
Fate: | Sold 20 March 1945 for scrapping |
Badge: | A viscount's coronet proper on a white field |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | V-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 1,120 tons standard |
Length: | 300 ft (91 m) o/a, 312 ft (95 m) p/p |
Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) |
Draught: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
Propulsion: | 3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis steam turbines, 2 shafts, 30,000 shp |
Speed: | 36-knot (67 km/h) |
Range: | 320–370 tons oil, 3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h), 900 nmi (1,700 km) at 32 knots (59 km/h) |
Complement: | 134 |
Armament: |
|
HMS Viscount was a V-class destroyer (Thornycroft V and W class) of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and in World War II.
Viscount, the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered either on 30 June 1916 or in July 1916 (sources differ) as part of the 9th Order of the 1916–1917 Naval Programme and was laid down by John I. Thornycroft & Company at Woolston, Hampshire, England, on 20 December 1916. Although broadly similar, Viscount was one of only two V-Class destroyers built by Thornycrofts. HMS Viscount differed in a number of ways to other V-Class destroyers and was notably faster. Launched on 29 December 1917, she was completed on 4 March 1918 and commissioned the same day. Her original pennant number, F99, was changed first to G06 and then in April 1918 to G24; it was changed to D92 during the interwar period.
Upon completion, Viscount was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, in which she served for the rest of World War I. Viscount rapidly gained a reputation as an exceptionally fast ship and successfully attacked and sank at least one German U-Boat which was caught on the surface. HMS Viscount was signalled to attack at full speed. The U-Boat spoilt the aim of Viscounts forward battery by submerging full-speed astern. Viscount steamed over the U-Boat and destroyed it by depth-charges. HMS Viscount also participated in several cruises/escorts to Murmansk and Archangel during this period. Other actions included the interception and seizing of Bolshevik-controlled Russian warships in support of White Russian forces.