HMS Recruit was an R-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. She was sunk by a German U-boat four months after she was commissioned in April 1917.
Description The Admiralty R class were enlarged versions of the preceding fitted with geared steam turbines.Gardiner & Gray, p. 76 They displaced at normal load. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . Recruit was powered by a single Parsons geared steam turbine that drove two propeller shafts using steam provided by three Yarrow boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The ships carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave them a range of at . The ships' complement was 80 officers and ratings.Friedman, p. 296
The Admiralty Rs were armed with three single QF Mark IV guns. One gun was positioned on the forecastle; the second was on a platform between the funnels and the third at the stern. They were equipped with a single QF 2-pounder () "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun, on a platform between the two rotating twin mounts for torpedoes amidships.Gardiner & Gray, p. 81; March, plate 23/A
Construction and career Recruit was ordered under the Sixth War Programme from William Doxford & Sons. The ship was laid down at the company's Sunderland shipyard at an unknown date, launched on 28 October 1916 and commissioned in April 1917.Friedman, p. 306
In May 1917 the vessel was assigned to the Tenth Destroyer Flotilla as part of the Harwich Force.Supplement to the Monthly Navy List. (May, 1917). p. 13. The destroyer was sunk by a torpedo from the submarine on 9 August 1917 in the North Sea north of the Noord Hinder lightvessel, with 53 crewmen lost.
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