See main article: S-class destroyer. Trojan was one of thirty-three Admiralty destroyers ordered by the British Admiralty in June 1917 as part of the Twelfth War Construction Programme. The design was a development of the introduced as a cheaper and faster alternative to the . Differences with the R class were minor, such as having the searchlight moved aft and mounting an additional pair of torpedo tubes.
Trojan had a overall length of 276feet and a length of 265feet between perpendiculars. Beam was 26feet and draught 9feet. Displacement was 1075LT normal and 1220LT deep load. Three White-Forster boilers fed steam to two sets of Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines rated at 27000shp and driving two shafts, giving a design speed of 36kn at normal loading and at deep load. Two funnels were fitted. The ship carried 301LT of fuel oil, which gave a design range of 2750nmi at .
Armament consisted of three QF 40NaN0 Mk IV guns on the ship's centreline. One was mounted raised on the forecastle, one between the funnels and one aft. The ship also mounted a single 401NaN1 2-pounder pom-pom anti-aircraft gun for air defence. Four 210NaN0 torpedo tubes were fitted in two twin rotating mounts aft. The ship was also equipped with two 180NaN0 torpedo tubes either side of the superstructure which were fired by the commanding officer using toggle ropes. Fire control included a training-only director, single Dumaresq and a Vickers range clock. The ship had a complement of 90 officers and ratings.
Trojan was laid down by J. Samuel White at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight with the yard number 1512 on 3 January 1918, and launched on 12 July the same year. The ship was completed on 6 December. The vessel is the only one to have carried the name, which recalled the inhabitants of Troy, to have served in the Royal Navy. The destroyer was to join the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet but the signing of the Armistice which ended the First World War meant the vessel saw no active service.[1]
With the dissolution of the Grand Fleet, Trojan was allocated to the Third Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.[2] The ship did not remain long in service, however, and was commissioned into the Reserve Fleet at Portsmouth on 16 August 1920.[3] Trojan remained in reserve until 14 September 1936 when the ship was given to Thos. W. Ward of Sheffield in exchange for the liner Majestic. Having remained on reserve for more than a decade, Trojan was found to be in poor condition. The destroyer was subsequently broken up at Inverkeithing.
| G66 | November 1918 |
| D76 | January 1919 |
| H44 | September 1936 |