1929 HMS ACTIVE. A member of a class of 19 destroyers constructed for the Royal Navy at the end of the 1920s, HMS Active was to be one of only six which survived the Second World War.
THE A-CLASS DESTROYERS
The As and Bs (they formed a single class), launched in 1929-30, were the first new designs of destroyer constructed for the Royal Navy since the end of the First World War. They embodied all the lessons learned in that conflict, with more generous accommodation and better sea-keeping properties, and were armed to take on surface ships and submarines. In all, some 76 very similar ships in nine sub-classes were to be commissioned before the out break of fresh hostilities in the summer of 1939, and many were to be lost. HMS Active was constructed by Hawthorne Leslie. Laid down in 1928, she was launched on 9 July 1929 and completed the following year. She was sold for breaking up in 1947.
ARMAMENT AND EQUIPMENT
As completed, Active was armed with four of the newly-introduced 4.7in (119mm) quick-firing Mark IX guns and eight 21 in (533mm) torpedo tubes in two quad mountings, and two single 2pdr Vickers porn-porn heavy machine guns. In 1940 she lost one bank of four torpedo tubes and gained a high-angle 3m (76mm) AA gun. Later on in the war she gained six 20mm Oerlikon light AA guns and a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar.
TECHNICAL DATA
Type: Destroyer
Machinery: 2-shaft geared turbines giving a total of 34,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 98.5m (323ft); beam, 9.9m (32.25ft)
Displacement: 1340t standard; 1750t deep load
Draught: 3.75m (1 2.25ft) full load
Complement: 138
Speed: 35 knots (65km/h)
