HMS Hope (1910)

HMS Hope was the first warship constructed by Swan Hunter and one of 20 Acorn-class destroyer (later H-class) destroyers built for the Royal Navy that served in the First World War. The Acorn class were smaller than the preceding Beagle-class destroyer but oil-fired and better armed. Launched in 1910, Hope served with the Second Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet as an escort based at Devonport for most of the war, protecting ships like RMS Aquitania, until being transferred to Malta to serve with the Fifth Destroyer Flotilla as part of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1917. Hope collided with and sank the destroyer HMS Arno (1915) in 1918. After the Armistice, the destroyer continued to serve in Malta under being sold in 1920.

Design and description
After the coal-burning Beagle-class destroyer, the Acorn-class destroyer saw a return to oil-firing. Pioneered by the Tribal-class destroyer of 1905 and HMS Swift (1907) of 1907, using oil enabled a more efficient design, leading to a smaller vessel which also had increased deck space available for weaponry. Unlike previous designs, where the individual yards had been given discretion within the parameters set by the Admiralty, the Acorn class were a set, with the machinery the only major variation between the different ships. This enabled costs to be reduced. The class was later renamed H class.

Hope was 240 ft long between perpendiculars and 246 ft overall, with a beam of 25 ft and a deep draught of 8 ft. Displacement was 745 LT normal and 855 LT full load. Power was provided by Parsons steam turbines, fed by four Yarrow boilers constructed by the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company. Parsons supplied a complex of seven turbines, a high-pressure and two low pressure for high speed, two turbines for cruising and two for running astern, driving three shafts. The high-pressure turbine drove the centre shaft, the remainder being distributed to the wing-shafts. Three funnels were fitted, the foremost tall and thin, the central short and thick and the aft narrow. The engines were rated at 13500 shp and design speed was 27 kn. On trial, Hope achieved 27.1 kn, a speed exceeded by the rest of the class. The vessel carried 170 LT of fuel oil which gave a range was 1540 nmi at a cruising speed of 15 kn.

The more efficient use of deck space enabled a larger armament to be mounted. A single BL 4 in Mk VIII gun was carried on the forecastle and another aft. Two single QF 12-pounder (3 in) guns were mounted between the first two funnels. Two rotating 21 in torpedo tubes were mounted aft of the funnels, with two reloads carried, and a searchlight fitted between the tubes. The destroyer was later modified to carry a single Vickers QF 3-pounder (47 mm) anti-aircraft gun and depth charges for anti-submarine warfare. The ship's complement was 72 officers and ratings.

Construction and career
The 20 destroyers of the Acorn class were ordered by the Admiralty under the 1909–1910 Naval Programme. The only one of the class sourced from Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Hope was laid down at the company's Wallsend shipyard on 5 December 1909, launched on 6 September 1910, and commissioned at Portsmouth on 4 March 1911. The ship was the first warship built at the yard and the most recent in a line of seventeen ships in Royal Navy service to bear the name.

Hope joined the Second Destroyer Flotilla. On 22 March 1913, Hope was being fuelled at Cromarty when a fire occurred, injuring five men, of which four were seriously injured. In August 1914, the Flotilla became part of the Grand Fleet and the destroyers were deployed to Devonport to undertake escort duties. On 30 July 1915, Hope escorted the liner RMS Aquitania transporting troops to the Mediterranean, and SS Commodore which undertook the journey between Liverpool and Dublin every night. On 5 March 1916, the vessel rescued the crew of the merchant ship SS Rothesay. On 3 December 1916, the vessel returned from Dover to Devonport after a short detachment there.

On 23 January 1917, the destroyer rescued the crew of the Dutch merchant ship SS Salland, sunk twenty minutes prior by the German submarine SMU U-53. Later that year, Hope was transferred to the Fifth Destroyer Flotilla as part of the Mediterranean Fleet under the protected cruiser HMS Blenheim (1890). On 20 January 1918, the destroyer was attached to the Aegean Squadron, based at Malta. While serving in the eastern Mediterranean, Hope collided with the destroyer HMS Arno (1915) on 23 March, sinking the smaller vessel.

After the Armistice, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of strength and both the number of ships and the amount of staff needed to be reduced to save money. Hope continued to serve in the Mediterranean Fleet but was paid off in 1919. The vessel was sold for breaking up at Malta in February 1920.