The post-war Daring-class destroyers

By the end of the Second World War, the Royal Navy was already looking to the future with regard to its warship designs. The lessons of the war were fresh in the minds of the Admiralty and the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, and there was a desire to incorporate them in the next warships that were to be designed and introduced into service.

The Daring-class destroyers – along with the smaller Weapon-class destroyers – were the result. Whereas the latter were an intermediate-sized design that emphasised anti-aircraft capabilities and were intended to be built by shipyards whose building ways were too small to be used to build Battle-class destroyers, the Darings were large, fleet destroyers. Interestingly, the Weapons and the Darings both had their propulsion machinery arranged on the unit principle, with their boiler and engine rooms arranged alternately. This was intended to improve survivability in the event of battle damage. As a result, both classes had two funnels, the foremost being inside their lattice foremast.

A side view of the Daring-class destroyers as originally designed and built.

When the Darings were being designed, the Admiralty was beginning to explore the possibility of producing a new class of warships that combined the roles previously performed separately by light cruisers and destroyers. As such, the Daring-class can been seen as a step towards the fulfilment of that concept, and the following class of destroyers to be built - the County-class - were certainly classified by some commentators as light cruisers.

It was originally intended that a total of twenty Daring-class destroyers would be built, sixteen (enough for two flotillas) for the Royal Navy and four for the Royal Australian Navy. However, only eight were completed for the Royal Navy and three for the Royal Australian Navy, with the fourth Australian ship being cancelled after work had begun on her. Her remains were scrapped in situ to clear the slipway.

The completed Royal Navy ships were HMS Daring, HMS Dainty, HMS Defender, and HMS Delight (all of which were fitted with older DC [direct current] electrical systems), HMS Decoy, HMS Diamond, HMS Diana, and HMS Duchess (all of which were fitted with more modern AC [alternate current] electrical systems). The ships underwent some minor modernisation during the 1960s that saw the STAAG (Stabilised Tachymetric Anti-Aircraft Gun) mountings replaced by single 40mm mountings and the removal of first one and then both sets of torpedo tubes.

HMS Daring-class as built.

In 1969, HMS Diana and HMS Decoy were sold to the Peruvian Navy and renamed BAP Palacios and BAP Ferré. They were extensively modernised and remained in service until 1993 and 2007 respectively.

The completed Royal Australian Navy ships were HMAS Voyager, HMAS Vendetta, and HMAS Vampire. HMAS Voyager was sunk in February 1964 after a collision with the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne. HMS Duchess was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy for four years to replace HMAS Voyager, and at the conclusion of the loan period, she was sold to the Royal Australian Navy.

The class's characteristics when built were:

• Displacement: 3,820 tons (full load)
• Dimensions:
• Length: 390ft (120 m)
• Beam: 43ft (13m)
• Draught: 12.75ft (3.89m)
• Propulsion: 2 x Foster Wheeler boilers providing steam to 2 x Parsons steam turbines (Royal Navy ships) or 2 x English Electric steam turbines (Royal Australian Navy ships) powering two propellors
• Speed: 30 knots
• Range: 4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots
• Complement: 297
• Sensors & processing systems: Type 293Q target indication radar; Type 291 air warning radar; Type 274 navigation radar; Type 275 fire control radar on director Mk.6; Type 262 fire control radars on director CRBF and STAAG Mk.2; Type 903 fire control radar on system MRS-3
• Armament: 3 × twin 4.5-inch/45 (114mm) Mk.5 guns in UD Mk.6 mountings; 2 × twin 40 mm/60 Bofors anti-aircraft guns in STAAG Mk.2 mountings; 1 × twin 40 mm/60 Bofors anti-aircraft guns in Mk.5 mounting; 2 × quintuple 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes; 1 × Squid anti-submarine mortar

The much-modernised BAP Palacios. She was equipped with two twin 4.5-inch/45 (114mm) Mk.5 guns in UD Mk.6 mountings, eight Exocet MM-38 surface-to-surface guided missiles, two twin OTO Melara 40mm/L70 DARDO compact guns, and an AB-212 anti-submarine helicopter.