This article was originally published in LE GROGNARD!, the newsletter of the ACT Branch of the Military Historical Society of Australia, January 2023 edition – Issue #2023/1. Tim Lyon is a member of the Naval Historical Society of Australia and Vice President of the ACT Branch of the Military Historical Society of Australia. He is a retired Naval Architect and Army Reserve Officer.
Years of patient lobbying by the Commonwealth Naval Forces (CNF) Director, Captain William Creswell, had at last borne fruit and, after some additional urging, in 1908 the new Australian Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, agreed to the acquisition of a destroyer flotilla for the future Royal Australian Navy.
To Fisher, the destroyers were to have two major functions. First, they would support any British capital ships operating in the Pacific, thereby allowing them to make the passage from home waters without being tied down by smaller, and hence less seaworthy, craft. Second, they would provide an effective means of coastal defence, thereby further encouraging local naval development. On 5th February 1909, a cable was sent to Australia’s representative in London instructing him to call for tenders for the first three vessels.
The design was based on a modified version of the Royal Navy Acheron (later I) Class destroyers.
Constructed under the 1910-11 Programme, the ships of the Acheron Class were repeat editions of the Acorn (later H) Class except that they carried three boilers instead of four and two funnels instead of three. 14 were constructed to standard Admiralty specification with three propellers.
Length: 240 feet Beam: 25¾ feet
Displacement: 750-780 tons
Turbines. 3 propellers. 13,500 s.h.p. 27-30 knots
Armament: 2-4 inch, 2-12 pounder guns. Torpedo tubes: 2-21 in. Complement: 72.
Concern over the high speeds being achieved by new foreign destroyers, particularly those of Germany, led the Admiralty to give Thornycroft, Yarrow and Hawthorn Leslie a free hand with the machinery installation of a further six of the class. These ships had two propellers.
Length: 240 feet Beam: 25¾ feet
Displacement: 750-780 tons
Turbines. 2 propellers. 15,000-16,500 s.h.p. 29-31 knots
Armament: 2-4 inch, 2-12 pounder guns. Torpedo tubes: 2-21 inch
Complement: 72
In addition, Yarrow were allowed to build three ‘Specials’ to their own version of the Acheron Class design, with three propellers.
Length: 255 feet Beam: 25¾ feet
Displacement: 790 tons
Turbines. 3 propellers. 20,000 s.h.p. 32-35 knots
Armament: 2-4 inch, 2-12 pounder guns. Torpedo tubes: 2-21 inch
Complement: 72
The first three River Class destroyers were ordered for the Commonwealth Naval Forces on 6th February 1909, the first ships to be ordered for the Commonwealth Naval Forces, the post Federation amalgamation of the Australian colonial navies. While the River Class were based on the Admiralty specification Acheron Class destroyers, they did have some significant changes. They were narrower resulting in a lower displacement. They also had a lower installed power and a corresponding lower top speed. Armament fitted was different to the British ships. They were named after Australian rivers.
Length: 245 (first three), 250¾ feet (second three) Beam: 24½ feet Draft: 8½ feet (first three), 8 feet (second three)
Displacement: 700 tons
Three Yarrow boilers, Parsons turbines. 3 propellers. 9,500-11,300 s.h.p.
Maximum speed: 26-28 knots
Range: 2,690 nautical miles at 11.5 knots
Armament: 1-4 inch, 3-12 pounder guns. Torpedo tubes: 3-18 inch
Complement: 66
[The reason for the change of armament fitted from two 21-inch torpedo tubes to three 18-inch torpedo tubes is not clear. This seems odd as the other ships ordered around this time by Australia, that is the battlecruiser Australia and the cruisers Sydney and Melbourne were fitted with 21-inch torpedo tubes. Ed.]
HMAS Parramatta was laid down by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, at their shipyard in Govan, Scotland on 17th March 1909. She was launched on 9th February 1910 by Mrs Margot Asquith, wife of British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. Parramatta was the first new ship launched for the Australian Navy followed by her sister ship HMAS Yarra.
HMAS Yarra was laid down by William Denny and Brothers, at its shipyard in Dumbarton. She was launched on 9th April 1910 by the wife of Newton Moore, the Premier of Western Australia. Construction was completed in August 1910, and the ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 10th September 1910 for the voyage out to Australia.
HMAS Warrego was built in the United Kingdom, dismantled, and the parts shipped to Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney, where the ship was reassembled by Australian workers to give them experience in ship construction. On 16th March 1912, Commander George F. Hyde was appointed in command prior to the ship’s commissioning at Sydney on 1st June 1912.
On 4th October 1913 Parramatta, Yarra and Warrego formed part of the Australian Fleet Unit’s historic entry into Sydney Harbour.
A second batch of three River Class destroyers was ordered a few years later. These ships were to be built in Australia.
HMAS Huon was laid down at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney, on 25th January 1913. She was launched on 19th December 1914 by the wife of federal politician Jens Jensen. Huon was commissioned into the RAN on 14th December 1915, and completed on 4th February 1916. The ship was originally to be named HMAS Derwent, after the Derwent River, but this was changed after the British Admiralty complained that there would be confusion with the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Derwent.
HMAS Torrens was laid down on 25th January 1913 at Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was launched by Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson, wife of the Governor-General, on 28th August 1915 and was commissioned into the RAN at Sydney on 3rd July 1916 under the command of Lieutenant Kenneth P. Dalglish RN.
HMAS Swan was laid down at Cockatoo Island Dockyard on 22nd January 1915. She was launched by Lady Creswell on 11th December 1915 and was completed on 3rd July 1916. She commissioned into the RAN at Sydney on 16th August 1916 under the command of Commander Arthur Bond RN.
Parramatta, Yarra and Warrego were operating with the Australian fleet at the start of the First World War. The three ships were assigned to the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, and participated in the capture of German New Guinea. After the conclusion of the campaign, the destroyers were assigned to home waters for a short period, then assigned to Malayan and surrounding waters until late 1916. During August and September, the second group of River Class destroyers began relieving the ships of the first group from Malayan patrols, with Parramatta, Yarra, and Warrego returning to Australia.
In July 1917, all six destroyers rendezvoused off the Cocos Islands: the first time the entire class had been in one location. From there, the River Class destroyers proceeded to the Mediterranean. On arrival at Malta, they were immediately deployed as escorts for a convoy. After this, the destroyers were modified for anti-submarine warfare: the aftmost torpedo tube was removed and replaced with depth charge rails. From August 1917, the six destroyers were based at Brindisi, Italy, assigned to patrol the Adriatic and prevent enemy submarines using it as a route to the Mediterranean.
The flotilla sailed for Plymouth on 3rd January 1919. En route the vessels ran into a storm off Cape Finisterre lasting four days during which Huon and Parramatta received such damage that they were forced to put into the Spanish port of Ferrol. They reached Plymouth on 14th January, and commenced a period of maintenance and leave period in England prior to their return to Australia. After many delays, the six destroyers assembled at Malta, where their torpedo tubes were re-installed, and in company with the cruiser HMAS Melbourne sailed for Australia on 17th March 1919. They had periods in reserve in the 1920s, and had all been disposed of by the 1930s.
However, one of these destroyers still exists!
Parramatta finally paid off on 20th April 1928. On 17th October 1929 she was handed over to Cockatoo Dockyard for dismantling. Her hull was subsequently used as an accommodation vessel, on the Hawkesbury River, NSW, by the New South Wales Department of Prisons before being sold to Mr George Rhodes of Cowan as scrap. The vessel was moored in the river but broke adrift during a storm and ran aground and her wreck remains there to this day.
