HMS TB 23 was a
Cricket-class coastal destroyer or
torpedo-boat of the British
Royal Navy. TB 23 was built by the shipbuilder
Yarrow from 1907 to 1908. She was used for local patrol duties in the
First World War and was sold for scrap in 1921.
Design
The Cricket-class was intended as a smaller and cheaper supplement to the large, fast, but expensive
Tribal-class destroyer, particularly in coastal waters such as the
English Channel.[1][2] Twelve ships were ordered under the 1905–1906 shipbuilding programme, with 12 more ordered in November 1906 under the 1906–1907 programme. The 1906–1907 orders were distributed with four ships being built by
J. Samuel White, two by
Denny, two by
Thornycroft, two by
Hawthorn Leslie and one each by
Palmers and
Yarrow.[1][3]
TB 23 was 177 feet 3 inches (54.03 m) long with a
beam of 18 feet 0 inches (5.49 m) and a
draught of 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m).
Displacement was 253 long tons (257 t).[4] The ships had turtleback[a]forecastles and two funnels. Two oil-fuelled Yarrow
water-tube boilers fed steam to three-stage Parsons
steam turbines, driving three propeller shafts.[3][2] The machinery was rated at 4,000 shaft horsepower (3,000 kW), giving a speed of 26 knots (30 mph; 48 km/h).[4]
Armament consisted of two 12-pounder (76-mm) 12 cwt guns,[b] and three 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (in three single mounts).[3][1] The ship had a crew of 35.[3]
Service
TB 23 was
laid down at Yarrow's
Cubitt Town, London shipyard on 10 February 1907, was
launched on 5 December 1907 and completed on 19 February 1908.[7]
TB 23 was commissioned as a tender to
Blake at
Sheerness Dockyard in March 1908. Later that month she was struck by the gunboat
Pembroke while tied up at a buoy, damaging the torpedo-boat's
stem.[8]
In March 1913, TB 23 was based at
Chatham, in commission, but with a nucleus crew,[9] and remained at Chatham in July 1914.[10] In November 1914, TB 23 was listed as part of the Local Defence Flotilla for
The Nore,[11] which had the duty of defending the
Thames Estuary.[12] She remained part of The Nore Local Defence Flotilla in December 1918.[13]
By January 1919, TB 23, although still at the Nore, had left the Local Defence Flotilla,[14][15] and by May, was listed as in Reserve at the Nore.[16] By January 1920, TB 23 was, together with most of the remaining torpedo boats, listed as being for sale.[17] She was sold to the
shipbreaker Wards for scrapping at their
Grays, Essex, yard on 9 May 1921, one of twelve Cricket-class ex-coastal destroyers sold to Wards on that day.[18]
Notes
^A fore deck with exaggerated camber designed to throw off sea water at high speeds.[5]