Destroyers – A Review

In this article an attempt is made to review the performance of destroyers since their introduction, with particular regard to their main function as fighting units in a fleet. The destroyer has become so versatile and her uses for every naval purpose from minesweeping to troop transport (alas, as often as not for evacuation) so widespread that any consideration of subsidiary uses has had to be omitted. The first torpedo boat was produced in 1877 and was Thorneycroft No. 1 or Lightning, a boat of 27 tons, 84 ft long, but Cusack Smith, writing in ‘Our Warships’ published in 1886 says, “Whether…