HMS Zulu (1909)

Template:Infobox ship The first HMS Zulu was a Tribal (or F-) class destroyer launched 16 September 1909 at Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard and commissioned in March 1910. She was mined during the First World War, on 27 October 1916 off Dover in a minefield lain by the Imperial German submarine UC-1. Her stern was blown off and sank, but the forward section remained afloat. It was towed into port and attached to the stern of Template:HMS, which had been torpedoed, to form a new destroyer named Template:HMS.

Construction and design

Zulu was one of five Tribal-class destroyers ordered by the British Admiralty in January 1908 under the 1907–1908 shipbuilding programme for the Royal Navy.<ref name="Fried p109">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="eng10 p310">Template:Harvnb</ref> The Tribal-class destroyers were to be powered by steam turbines and use oil-fuel rather than coal, and be capable of Template:Convert, but detailed design was left to the builders, which meant that individual ships of the class differed greatly.<ref name="conways06 p72">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Friedman p106-9">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Zulu was Template:Convert long overall and Template:Convert between perpendiculars, with a beam of Template:Convert and a draught of Template:Convert. Normal displacement was Template:Convert, with deep load displacement Template:Convert.<ref name="Friedman p294">Template:Harvnb</ref> Six Yarrow boilers fed steam to Parsons steam turbines, giving Template:Convert and driving three propeller shafts. The main high-pressure turbine drove the centre shaft, with the outer shafts being fitted with low-pressure turbines, together with cruise and astern turbines. The outtakes from the boilers were fed to four funnels. Range was Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name="eng10 p310"/><ref name="Friedman p294"/><ref name="Friedman p108-9">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="conways06 p71">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Gun armament consisted of two Template:Convert guns,<ref group="lower-alpha">Gardiner and Gray state that the guns were BL Mk IV,<ref name="conways06 p71"/> while Friedman claims that they were BL Mk VIII guns.<ref name="Friedman p105">Template:Harvnb</ref></ref> with two Template:Convert torpedo tubes comprising the ship's torpedo armament.<ref name="conways06 p71"/> The ship had a complement of 71.<ref name="Friedman p294"/>

Zulu was laid down at Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn, Tyneside shipyard on 18 August 1908. Construction was slowed by industrial action, and the ship was not launched until 16 September 1909,<ref name="eng10 p310"/> with the ship crossing the River Tyne on launching, colliding with a jetty.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After successful sea trials in December 1909, Zulu was commissioned on 19 March 1910.<ref name="eng10 p310"/>

Service

On commissioning, Zulu joined the 1st Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet. She remained part of the 1st Flotilla until 1913, when she transferred to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla,<ref name="eng10 p310"/><ref name="nmm">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> based at Portsmouth.<ref name="manning p25">Template:Harvnb</ref> In October that year, the Tribals were officially designated the F class, and as such the letter "F" was painted on the bows of the class.<ref name="conways06 p72"/><ref name="Fried p100">Template:Harvnb</ref> In February 1914, the Tribals (including Zulu), whose range was too short for effective open sea operations, were sent to Dover, forming the 6th Destroyer Flotilla.<ref name="conways06 p72"/><ref name="nmm"/>

On the outbreak of the First World War the 6th Flotilla formed the basis of the Dover Patrol.<ref name="Fried p139">Template:Harvnb</ref> Zulu captured the German sailing ship Perhns on 5 August 1914, and collided with sister ship Template:HMS in both August and September that year.<ref name="uboatz"/> On 24 April 1916, Zulu took place in a large scale operation off the Belgian coast to lay mines and nets, in an attempt to limit use of the ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge to German U-boats. Zulu and Template:HMS laid lines of dan-buoys to mark to positions for the minefields and nets to be laid.<ref name="baconv1 p152-5">Template:Harvnb</ref> In total, 1,565 mines were laid by the minelayers Princess Margaret, Orvietto, Paris and Biarritz. The minefield probably caused the loss of one U-Boat, Template:SMU,<ref name="Grant p33">Template:Harvnb</ref> although at the time it was thought that four or five German submarines had been sunk. The destroyer Template:HMS was badly damaged by shellfire from German coast-defence batteries, while one drifter, Clover Bank, was sunk by a mine.<ref name="baconv1 p158-0">Template:Harvnb</ref>

On 8 November 1916, Zulu was sailing from Dover to Dunkirk when she struck a mine, laid by Template:SMU, that exploded under the ship's engine-room. Three men were killed, and the shipTemplate:'s stern broke off and sunk. Zulu was towed to safety in Calais by the French destroyer Template:Ship.<ref name="uboatz">Template:Cite Uboat.net</ref><ref name="baconv2 p361">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It was decided to join the front end of Zulu with the stern of Nubian, another Tribal-class destroyer that had had her bows blown off by a torpedo during the Battle of Dover Strait on the night of 26/27 October 1916. Although these ships were not of identical design, the two sections were joined at Chatham Dockyard to produce a new destroyer, Template:HMS that commissioned on 7 June 1917.<ref name="conways06 p72"/>

Pennant numbers

Pennant number<ref name="ditt p60">Template:Harvnb</ref>	Date
H86	1914
D10	September 1915

References

Sources

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• {{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book

|_exclude=case, year, _debug
| last1 = Colledge
| first1 = J. J. 
| author-link1= J. J. Colledge
| last2 = Warlow
| first2 = Ben
| date = 2006
| orig-date = 1969
| title = Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present
| edition = Rev.
| location = London
| publisher = Chatham Publishing
| isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8
| OCLC = 67375475

}}

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