V and W Class Destroyer - Thornycroft V and W Class

Thornycroft V and W Class

The Thornycroft V and W class were two V class and two W class specials built by John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited to Admiralty specifications. They were ordered in pairs six months apart, on 30 July 1916 and 9 December 1916, respectively. They could be recognised by a higher freeboard and shorter mainmast than the Admiralty type and the flat-sided funnels typical of Thornycroft. The large boiler room (two units) was aft with the single unit forward, the fore funnel therefore being narrower. This arrangement was transposed in the Thornycroft Modified W class. The V-class ships had twin torpedo tubes and those of the W-class triple units. The second pair had slightly more displacement and a guaranteed (by contract) speed of 36 knots compared with the 35 knots guaranteed for the first pair. Early in their careers the specified anti-aircraft gun, the QF 2 pounder, was replaced by a single QF 12 pdr 20 cwt Mark I weapon, on a platform between the after funnel and the forward torpedo tubes.

All except Viscount, which became a short range escort, were modified to WAIR type fast anti-aircraft escorts. Their conversions were non-standard in that they carried a pair of QF 2 pdr Mark VIII guns on platforms amidships - en echelon in Woolston only - and that Viceroy retained a bank of torpedoes for some time.