The eight Australian ships were to be built in Australian shipyards. The Royal Australian Navy and Royal Canadian Navy both ordered a flotilla of Tribals. The Royal Navy placed an order for seven Tribals on 10 March 1936, with a second group of nine Tribals ordered on 9 June for two flotillas' worth of ships. They are remembered with great affection to this day. They were considered to be handsome ships, with a clipper bow that provided excellent seakeeping and two raked funnels and masts. The ships were also armed with a quadruple bank of torpedo tubes.
These ships introduced the Fuze Keeping Clock High Angle Fire Control Computer, which was used on all subsequent British wartime destroyers. To provide close range anti-aircraft protection, the design was fitted with a quadruple Mark VII QF 2 pdr "pom pom" mounting, and two quadruple Vickers. Īlthough the design was rejected for the fleet cruiser role, by August 1935, after no less than eight design proposals, it had evolved to present a destroyer with eight 4.7 inch Quick Firing Mark XII guns, in four twin mountings, with a maximum elevation of 40°, controlled by a low-angle (LA) director and high-angle / low-angle (HA/LA) rangefinder director on the bridge. This design envisioned a 1,850-ton ship with a speed of 36.25 knots (67.14 km/h 41.72 mph), an endurance of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km 6,300 mi), and five twin 4.7 inch guns as main armament. The destroyer was based on 'Design V', a design study for a small fleet cruiser (another variant of this design evolved into the Dido-class cruiser). To counteract this trend, the Admiralty decided on a new destroyer type, with an emphasis on gunnery over torpedo warfare. During the interwar period, advances in armament and machinery meant that by the mid-1930s, these "interwar standard" destroyers were being eclipsed by foreign designs, particularly from Japan, Italy, and Germany. Only one Tribal survives to this day: HMCS Haida, which is now a museum ship in Hamilton Harbour, Ontario, Canada.įrom 1926, all Royal Navy destroyers had descended from a common lineage based upon the prototypes Amazon and Ambuscade. Only a handful of Royal Navy Tribals survived the war, all of which were subsequently scrapped from hard use, while Commonwealth Tribals continued to serve into the Cold War, serving with distinction in the Korean War.
Īs some of the Royal Navy's most modern and powerful escort ships, the Tribal class served with distinction in nearly all theatres of World War II.
The Tribals were well admired by their crews and the public when they were in service due to their power, often becoming symbols of prestige while in service. Originally conceived during design studies for a light fleet cruiser, the Tribals evolved into fast, powerful destroyers, with greater emphasis on guns over torpedoes than previous destroyers, in response to new designs by Japan, Italy, and Germany. The Tribal class, or Afridi class, were a class of destroyers built for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Australian Navy that saw service in World War II. up to 4 × single and twin 20 mm (1 in) AA guns.1 × Depth charge rack, 2 × throwers, 20 depth charges.1 × quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes.2 × quadruple 0.5 in (12.7 mm) AA machineguns.Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company.HMCS Haida, a Canadian Tribal-class destroyer and the only Tribal-class destroyer to be preserved