HMS Viking was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched in 1909 and sold for scrap in 1919. She was the only destroyer ever to have six funnels.
Construction and design
HMS Viking was one of five Tribal-class destroyers ordered as part of the Royal Navy's 1907–08 shipbuilding programme. She was laid down at Palmers' Jarrow shipyard on 11 June 1908 and was launched on 14 September 1909. The Tribal-class destroyers were to be powered by steam turbines and use oil-fuel rather than coal, and be capable of , but detailed design was left to the builders, which meant that individual ships of the class differed greatly.
Viking was long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of . Normal displacement was , with full load displacement . She had a turtleback forecastle topped by a raised forward gun platform that also carried the ship's bridge. The raised gun platform acted as a breakwater, causing heavy spray that made it difficult to work the forward gun or use the bridge. Six Yarrow boilers fed steam at to Parsons steam turbines, giving and driving three propeller shafts. The outtakes from the boilers were fed to six funnels, making Viking the Royal Navy's only six-funneled destroyer. Range was at .
Gun armament consisted of two 4 inch guns, the 12-pounder guns carried by earlier Tribals having been proved ineffective by trials against the old destroyer HMS Skate in 1906. Two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes were carried. The ship had a complement of 71.
Viking was commissioned in June 1910, having reached a speed of during sea trials.
Service
On commissioning, Viking joined the First Destroyer Flotilla, remaining part of that unit until 1913. In October that year, the Tribals were officially designated the F class, and as such the letter "F" was painted on Afridis bows.
In February 1914, the Tribals, whose range was too short for effective open sea operations, were sent to Dover, forming the 6th Destroyer Flotilla. On the outbreak of the First World War, the 6th Flotilla formed the basis of the Dover Patrol, with which the Tribal class, including Viking served for the duration of the war.
In October 1914, the Dover Patrol was deployed to help support Belgian ground forces during the Battle of the Yser, carrying out shore bombardment operations. Viking suffered an explosion of its forward gun, wounding two and causing the ship to be withdrawn from the operations. (Viking was later awarded the Battle Honour "Belgian Coast 1914–18").
On 20 February 1915, Viking was patrolling anti submarine nets in the Dover strait when she saw indicator buoys being disturbed, and in the belief that this was due to a submarine being caught on the nets, called up several destroyers, including sister ship and drifters to investigate. Although an explosive anti-submarine sweep was fired, no submarine was damaged. On 4 March 1915, the German submarine became caught in the Dover straits nets, and the resulting disturbance was spotted by the drifter Roburn, which called up the nearby destroyer patrol, including Viking, , and . Viking fired her explosive sweep with no effect, but after the submarine was spotted by Maori, Ghurka used her own explosive sweep to force the German submarine to the surface. After briefly being shelled, the submarine was scuttled and abandoned, the crew surrendering.