HMS Botha was one of six that had been ordered from Britain for the Chilean Navy before the start of World War I in 1914. Four of the ships were still construction when the war began and were purchased by the Royal Navy (RN). Completed in 1915 as a , Botha was initially assigned to the Grand Fleet, but was transferred in 1917 to the Dover Patrol. She rejoined the Grand Fleet after the war.
Design and description The Almirante Lynch-class ships were ordered by Chile in 1912 to counter four destroyers ordered by Argentina from France. Two of these ships had been delivered before the war began and the British purchased the other four; the two that were almost complete were bought in August and the pair which had not yet been launched the following month. The first pair to enter service had minimal alterations to suit the RN, but the latter two were more heavily modified.Friedman, pp. 139–140, footnote 3, pp. 278–279Preston, p. 78
The ships were the second-largest destroyers in the world, after , and served in the RN as the Faulknor-class flotilla leaders. The Faulknors had a length between perpendiculars of , an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of at deep load. They displaced at normal load and at deep load. The crew of Botha and her sister ship consisted of 203 officers and ratings.Friedman, p. 297
The Faulknor class were powered by three Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by six mixed-firing White-Forster boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of around . The ships carried of coal and of fuel oil that gave them a range of at .March, p. 166
The main armament of the Faulknor class consisted of six quick-firing (QF) four-inch (102 mm) Mk VI guns on pivot mounts with large gun shields. The arrangement of the guns and torpedo tubes on Botha and Tipperary differed from their half-sisters and in that the former had the guns grouped in a triangle formation mirrored fore and aft; the forward group had one on the centreline on the forecastle and the other two were on each side of the forward superstructure while the rear group had the sternmost gun on the quarterdeck and the others were further forward, one gun on each broadside. They were also fitted with four torpedo tubes in two rotating twin-tube mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes, one mount on each broadside. For defense against aircraft, the sisters were initially equipped with a anti-aircraft gun on a platform between the middle funnels; this was later replaced by two two-pounder () Mk I guns on single mounts on separate platforms between the rearmost and middle funnels.March, pp. 166–167, 169, Plate 21/A
Citations
Bibliography