Destroyer

When the self-propelled torpedo gave small torpedo boats the chance to sink a battleship, navies began building larger, faster ships to fight them. In the 1890s the Royal Navy, prompted by John Fisher, introduced torpedo-boat destroyers such as Havock, which also carried torpedoes and could keep up with the fleet. Germany made no distinction between the two classes: until the end of the war it built torpedo boats that were in practice destroyers, identified by a builder's letter and a number.

In 1914 destroyers were to protect their own battleships from torpedo attack and to attack the enemy fleet themselves; nearly 80 British destroyers and about 60 German torpedo boats fought at Jutland. Submarine warfare changed their tasks: with bows strengthened for ramming, depth charges and hydrophones, they patrolled coastal waters and from 1917 escorted convoys. On 4 May 1917 the first six American destroyers reached Queenstown. Britain lost 67 destroyers in the war, many in collisions and on rocks.