HMAS Stuart (D00) - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

Stuart was one of nine Admiralty-type (or Scott-class) destroyer leaders constructed during World War I for the Royal Navy. The ship had a displacement of 1,530 tons standard and 2,053 tons at full load. She was 332 feet 7.5 inches (101.384 m) long overall and 320 feet (98 m) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 31 feet 9.375 inches (9.68693 m), and a draught of 11 feet 4 inches (3.45 m) at full load. The propulsion machinery consisted of four Yarrow boilers feeding two Brown-Curtis turbines, which delivered 43,000 shaft horsepower (32,000 kW) to the two propeller shafts. Although designed with a maximum speed of 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph), Stuart could reach 34.669 knots (64.207 km/h; 39.896 mph) on the measured mile during trials. Maximum range was 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). The ship's company initially consisted of 183 personnel, but by 1936 had decreased to 167: 11 officers and 156 sailors.

When Stuart entered RAN service in 1933, the ship's armament consisted of five BL 4.7 inch /45 naval guns, a QF 3 inch 20 cwt gun, two QF 2 pounder naval guns (known as pom-poms), five .303 inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), six 21-inch torpedo tubes (in two triple mountings), two depth charge chutes, and four depth charge throwers. By 1941, two of the 4.7-inch guns had been removed, five 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and a Breda gun had been fitted, and the depth charge chutes were replaced with depth charge rails. A year later, a third 4.7-inch gun was removed, along with two of the Oerlikons, the .303-inch guns, the Breda gun, and the torpedo tube sets. During 1942, a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar was installed. When Stuart was converted into a storesship and troop transport in 1944, her armament was changed to a single 4-inch gun, seven Oerlikons, three quad-barelled pom-poms, a Hedgehog, and a payload of depth charges.

Stuart was laid down by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at their shipyard in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 18 October 1917, and was launched on 22 August 1918. Stuart was one of only four ships in her class to launch before the end of World War I. The destroyer was completed on 21 December 1918 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on the same day. The ship's name comes from the royal House of Stuart, and the badge design depicts a Stuart royal crown and a Yorkshire rose: the Scottish Stuart's claim to the English throne came from their descent from Edward IV of the House of York.