The class introduced new features to destroyer design, placing a greater emphasis on seakeeping and endurance and less on a high maximum speed in good weather. All the ships were named after British, Irish and Portuguese rivers, and as such were the first Royal Navy destroyer class to be named systematically.
The concept for the River class began in December 1900, with a request from Commander John Michael de Robeck, then the senior destroyer officer in the Mediterranean Fleet, for a new class of destroyer with a longer range and better sea-keeping qualities than the existing "27-knotter" class (the survivors of which would be redesignated the A-class in 1913) and "30-knotter" class (redesignated the B, C and, D classes in 1913). De Robeck's specification called for a range of 1650nmi at a sustained speed of 18lk=inNaNlk=in; the "30-knotter" could only make 1400abbr=onNaNabbr=on at its cruising speed of 13kn.[1]
De Robeck also called for various modifications to destroyer design to help make ships more seaworthy, in particular keeping up their speed in adverse weather conditions. The most noticeable change would be to introduce a raised forecastle rather than an arched turtleback for the hull forward of the bridge, and that the bridge should be placed further aft to keep it clear of spray from waves breaking over the bow. Furthermore, he felt that destroyers should run their speed trials with a more realistic load of fuel and supplies. The "30-knotter" type might have a nominal speed of 30 knots, but even in very good weather this was never achieved in service.[2]
Other officers serving on Royal Navy destroyers made similar observations about their ships. John de Robeck's commanding officer, Vice-Admiral "Jackie" Fisher, drew a comparison with the German, which had impressed Royal Navy officers who had seen it.[3]
In July 1901 the Director of Naval Construction worked on sketch designs for future destroyers, which included many of the features de Robeck and his colleagues advocated, as well as a heavier and more reliable kind of engine. The trials speed was initially 27kn, though further requirements for increased strength reduced the speed to 25.5kn. While this speed seemed like a significant reduction, it would be measured with a realistic 95 tons of coal loaded on board, and the better sea-keeping properties meant that the new ships would perform better than a "30-knotter" in any seas except for a flat calm.[4]
As with other early British destroyer classes, the Admiralty invited specialist private firms to submit their own designs for destroyers which would meet the specification. The idea was to use the builders' knowledge of building small, fast, ships to help cram powerful machinery into a small hull. For this reason, details of the hull and internal arrangements differed between ships in the class.
Nevertheless, the River class can clearly be distinguished from previous destroyers because of its raised forecastle. Previous British designs had a low "turtle-back" forecastle, which, although intended to clear the bows, caused them to dig in to the sea, resulting in a very wet conning position. The bridge was also further back than in previous destroyer models.
All ships were coal fired (except Arno which was oil-fired), and all had triple expansion steam engines except for four; Eden, Stour, Test and Arno were powered by steam turbines. Eden was given turbines to test their viability for future destroyer classes, with two propellers on each of her three shafts, to transmit the power at the high revolutions of the direct drive turbines, a feature of the earlier .
By 1906 the Russo-Japanese War had shown that the 6-pounder gun was insufficiently effective, so the five 6-pounders in this class were replaced by three additional 12-pounders, creating an "all big gun" armament.[5]
With a general increase in size and more solid construction, the Rivers became the first truly oceangoing and useful torpedo boat destroyers in Royal Navy service.
Despite making only 25 knots (previous classes had made 27kn30kn under the most favourable conditions), the increased seaworthiness meant that they could maintain this speed into a sea and that they remained workable and fightable at the same time. Notwithstanding a variety of design differences, all ships had either two broad funnels or two pairs of narrow funnels.
Thirty-three ships were ordered - ten ships under the 1901-02 Programme, eight ships under the 1902-03 Programme, and fifteen ships under the 1903-04 Programme. A further fourteen orders were projected under the draft 1904-05 Programme, but one vessel built by Palmers on speculation in 1902 was instead purchased for the Navy, and the other intended orders were never placed. Two additional vessels (likewise built on speculation by Cammell Laird in 1904–05) were purchased in December 1909 under the 1908-09 Programme, and a similar vessel building in Genoa for the Portuguese Navy was purchased by the Admiralty in 1915 following the outbreak of war.
Apart from the Gala and Blackwater (both lost by accidents in 1908 and 1909 respectively), all these ships were re-designated as the 'E' class in 1913 (including Arno in 1915) and saw service during World War 1, when seven of them were sunk. The 28 ships surviving the war were all sold out of service and scrapped by late 1920.
| Name | Builder | Laid down | Launch date | Completed | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901-02 Programme | ||||||
| 12 June 1902 | 14 February 1903 | July 1904.[6] | Mined and sunk off Le Havre 2 May 1917.[7] | |||
| R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn | 12 June 1902 | 13 March 1903, | June 1904. | Rammed and sunk by SS France in English Channel 18 June 1916. | ||
| 3 July 1902 | 14 January 1903 | February 1904. | Wrecked off Rattray Head 6 February 1915. | |||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 9 July 1902 | 28 February 1904 | February 1904. | Sold for breaking up 27 May 1919. | ||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 14 July 1902 | 27 April 1903 | March 1904. | Sold for breaking up 10 February 1920. | ||
| 4 July 1902 | 19 March 1904 | June 1904. | Sold for breaking up 29 July 1920. | |||
| Yarrow & Co., Poplar | 10 July 1902 | 7 November 1903 | April 1904. | Sold for breaking up 23 June 1919. | ||
| Yarrow & Co., Poplar | 30 July 1902 | 25 July 1903 | March 1904. | Sold for breaking up 29 July 1920. | ||
| 15 August 1902 | 25 February 1903 | March 1904. | Mined and sunk in Straits of Dover 15 March 1917. | |||
| Laird Brothers, Birkenhead | 18 August 1902 | 17 March 1903 | January 1904. | Torpedoed and sunk by U-boat U-99 in the North Sea 6 July 1917. | ||
| 1902-03 Programme | ||||||
| Laird Brothers, Birkenhead | 17 August 1902 | 29 April 1903 | February 1904. | Sold for breaking up 30 June 1920. | ||
| Laird Brothers, Birkenhead | 27 August 1902 | 25 July 1903 | March 1904. | Sunk in collision with SS Hero 6 April 1909 off Dungeness. | ||
| Yarrow & Co., Poplar | 1 October 1902 | 14 April 1904 | July 1904. | Sold for breaking up 30 June 1920. | ||
| R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn | 20 October 1902 | 16 March 1903 | 14 June 1904. | Sold for breaking up 10 February 1920. | ||
| 5 December 1902 [8] | 4 December 1903 | January 1905. | Sold for breaking up 11 December 1919. | |||
| John I. Thornycroft & Company, Chiswick | 27 February 1903 | 16 February 1904 | January 1905. | Sold for breaking up 29 July 1920. | ||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 20 January 1903 | 23 July 1903 | March 1904. | Sold for breaking up 23 June 1919. | ||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 5 March 1903 | 10 September 1903 | May 1904. | Sold for breaking up 23 July 1919. | ||
| (b) | Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 23 March 1903 | 5 January 1904 | May 1905. | Sold for breaking up 23 June 1919. | |
Note: (a) Laird Brothers were taken over by steelmakers Cammell in 1903, and were renamed Cammell Laird & Co.
(b) Rother was not ordered under the 1902-03 Programme; Palmers laid down 3 ships to the same design in early 1903, but only received orders for two ships, the third ship being built on speculation; this was purchased by the Admiralty in 1904 in lieu of one of the 143 orders projected under the 1904-05 Programme, and was named Rother.
A major distinction in appearance between the ships on the 1901–02 and 1902-03 Programmes on one hand and the ships of the 1903-04 Programme on the other hand is that the former were completed with the forward pair of 6-pdr guns mounted on sponsons extending outwards from the ship's sides (abreast of the bridge). With the 1903-04 Programme these sponsons were deleted, the high forecastle was extended back as far as the bridge and the two foremost 6-pdr guns were mounted directly on the two sides of the forecastle immediately forward of the bridge. The same change was subsequently retro-fitted into the earlier batches.
| Name | Builder | Laid down | Launch date | Completed | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1903-04 Programme | ||||||
| R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn | 16 February 1904 | 12 September 1904 | May 1905. | Sold for breaking up 30 August 1919. | ||
| R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn | 16 February 1904 | 8 November 1904 | June 1905. | Sold for breaking up 27 May 1920. | ||
| R. W. Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn | 16 February 1904 | 8 November 1904 | August 1905. | Mined and sunk in North Sea 27 March 1918. | ||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 23 February 1904 | 20 April 1905 | September 1905. | Sold for breaking up 23 June 1919. | ||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 1 March 1904 | 25 October 1904 | June 1905. | Sold for breaking up 27 May 1919. | ||
| Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow | 7 March 1904 | 21 January 1905 | August 1905. | Sold for breaking up 4 November 1919. | ||
| 22 March 1904 | 23 September 1904 | May 1905. | Sold for breaking up 2 June 1919. | |||
| Cammell Laird & Company, Birkenhead | 22 March 1904 | 10 November 1904 | June 1905. | Sold for breaking up 27 May 1919. | ||
| Cammell Laird & Company, Birkenhead | 22 March 1904 | 7 January 1905 | September 1905. | Sold for breaking up 22 October 1919. | ||
| Yarrow & Co., Poplar | 1 February 1904 | 7 January 1905 | 1905. | Collided with HMS Attentive and sank 27 April 1908 off Harwich. | ||
| Yarrow & Co., Poplar | 25 April 1904 | 31 March 1905 | September 1905. | Sold for breaking up 22 October 1920. | ||
| John I. Thornycroft & Company, Chiswick | 11 February 1904 | 8 December 1904 | June 1905. | Sold for breaking up 30 June 1920. | ||
| John I. Thornycroft & Company, Chiswick | 21 March 1904 | 21 May 1905 | July 1905. | Sold for breaking up 4 November 1919. | ||
| 5 May 1904 | 5 January 1905 | August 1905. | Sold for breaking up 27 May 1919. | |||
| J. Samuel White, Cowes | 5 May 1904 | 7 March 1905 | October 1905. | Sold for breaking up 23 June 1919. | ||
| Later purchases | ||||||
| (c) | Cammell Laird & Company, Birkenhead | 5 December 1904 | 3 June 1905 | March 1910. | Sold for breaking up 30 August 1919. | |
| (c) | Cammell Laird & Company, Birkenhead | 5 December 1904 | 6 May 1905 | March 1910. | Sold for breaking up 30 August 1919. | |
| (d) | unknown | 22 December 1914 | June 1915. | Sunk off the Dardanelles in collision with the destroyer Hope 30 August 1919.[9] | ||
Note: (c) Stour and Test were not ordered under the 1903-04 Programme but were built concurrently by Cammell Laird on speculation; these were purchased by the Admiralty in December 1909, completed and named Stour and Test.
(d) building as Portuguese Liz pre-war, but purchased by the Admiralty in March 1915 prior to completion, and renamed for the river Arno in Portugal.
As all of these vessels were designed and constructed by their shipbuilders to their own company designs, they differed in detail and in appearance. Even ships built at different times by the individual builders would differ from year to year, not least the ships built in 1903-04 and later after the deletion of the sponsons from the designs.