The Tribal class destroyers trace their roots to 1934 when the British Admiralty evaluated the threat posed by much larger destroyers being built in Japan, Italy and even Germany than the Royal Navy had. These ships were all around 2000 tons while the British destroyers were closer to 1300 tons.

Estimated cost per ship was 340,000 pounds excluding Admiralty supplied armaments putting the average cost around 520,000. The Tribal was finally accepted after no less than 8 design proposals. The design chosen was a powerful yet beautiful looking ship. The first 7 Tribals were ordered on 10 March, 1936 with the latter group of 9 Tribals being ordered on 9 June.

The ships were formed into the 1st and 2nd Tribal destroyer flotillas. By 1939 the Royal Navy had learned that while the Tribals were larger they were just normal destroyers. Thus the flotillas were renamed 4th and 6th destroyer flotillas.

8 ships were built for the Canadian Navy and the first of those came into service in 1943. (4 more Tribals were being built for the RCN but they would not see service until after the war). Australia built 3 Tribal class destroyers, which were commissioned into the RAN.

The Tribals were not really U-boat hunters but rather fleet destroyers.

During the second half of 1940 the Royal Navy ships (except the war losses HMS Gurkha and HMS Afridi) had one twin 4.7" gun turret replaced by a twin 4" AA gun turret. The Canadian and Australian ships carried this arrangement upon completion.

The original Tribals
The original Tribals were a batch of twelve ships built for the Royal Navy in 1905 - 1908 and were the forerunners of the Modern Class of Royal Navy destroyers. Roughly of 1,000 tons displacement. Armament was in two variants; the first five had a main armament of five 12 pounders, the remaining seven carried two 4 inch guns. Names were after African tribes. These ships became known as the "original 33 knotters." They saw action in WWI in the Channel and the North Sea.

A Tribal class destroyer on display
Today there is only 1 ship of this class left in the world. Thankfully she is being preserved as a museum ship in Canada. Her name is HMCS Haida and she has her own fine website (offsite link).

Pennant numbers were changed from F .. to G .. in late 1940 (in or around December).

Tribal class ships hit by U-boats (3)