The Capitán Merino Jarpa class was a series of three torpedo boat destroyers constructed in the United Kingdom and operated by the Chilean Navy. All of the ships were built in 1901 and decommissioned in 1924. The trio was a development on the earlier , themselves based on British designs.
Development and design The destroyers were built by Cammell Laird in the United Kingdom based on the shipyard's design used by the Royal Navy. Unlike the British destroyers, the exported design featured four-cylinder engines and were sold to Russia and Chile. The Chilean Navy ordered four which were built in 1896 and known as the Capitán Orella class. Several years later, the design was revised with the bow torpedo tube removed and slightly enlarged to produce the three Capitán Merino Jarpa-class torpedo boat destroyers. Three were built in 1901 and named Capitán Merino Jarpa, Capitán O'Brien, and Capitán Thomson.
The four destroyers had a length between perpendiculars of with a beam of draught of , and a steel hull. They displaced and carried a complement of 65. Propulsion was provided by two propellers powered by triple-expansion steam engines supplied by Normand boilers, which produced and gave the ships a design speed of . During sea trials, the vessels attained speeds of between . They carried approximately of coal. Armament consisted of one bow-mounted quick-firing gun, five 6-pounder guns, and two torpedo tubes on trainable mountings.
The ships, alongside others of the type built by Cammell Laird, were criticized for having a wide turning circle and squatting at high speeds. They were decommissioned in 1924, along with the rest of the Chilean torpedo boat destroyers.
Ships in class +DataNameBuilderBuiltFate Cammell Laird1901Stricken 1924 Cammell Laird1901Stricken 1924 Cammell Laird1901Stricken 1924
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