Havock class destroyer
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Havock class |
| Builders: | Yarrow & Company, London |
| Operators: |
 Royal Navy
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| Preceded by: | Daring class |
| Succeeded by: | Ferret class |
| Cost: | £66,948 for 2 ships |
| Built: | 1893 |
| In commission: | 1893–1912 |
| Planned: | 2 |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Retired: | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Torpedo boat destroyer |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | |
| Beam: | 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m) |
| Draught: | 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) |
| Installed power: | c. 3,700 ihp (2,800 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 26.78 knots (49.60 km/h; 30.82 mph) |
| Range: | 3,000 nmi (5,600 km) |
| Complement: | 46 |
| Armament: |
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The Havock class was a class of torpedo boat destroyer (TBD) of the British Royal Navy. The two ships, Havock and Hornet, built in London in 1893 by Yarrow & Company, were the first TBDs to be completed for the Royal Navy, although the equivalent pair from J.I. Thornycroft, Daring and Decoy, were ordered five days earlier.
The invention of the self-propelled torpedo by Robert Whitehead and Austrian Navy Captain Giovanni Luppis in 1866, combined with the introduction of small fast torpedo boats (invented by John Ericsson in the late 19th century) posed a threat to battleships: large numbers of torpedo boats could overwhelm a battleship's defences and sink it, or distract the battleship and make it vulnerable to opposing capital ships. Torpedo boats proved devastatingly effective in the 1891 Chilean Civil War.
The defence against torpedo boats was clear: small warships accompanying the fleet that could screen and protect it from attack by torpedo boats. Several European navies developed vessels variously known as torpedo boat "catchers", "hunters" and "destroyers", while the Royal Navy itself operated torpedo gunboats. However, the early designs lacked the range and speed to keep up with the fleet they were supposed to protect. In 1892, the Third Sea Lord, Rear Admiral Jackie Fisher ordered the development of a new type of ships equipped with the then novel water-tube boilers and quick-firing small calibre guns.
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