HMS Kilbride
HMS Kilbride was a sloop of the Kil class which were also referred to as gunboats, built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was designed for anti-submarine warfare, but was completed too late in the war to be used extensively in that role. The class were designed to be double-ended to confuse submarine observers, and were painted in dazzle camouflage.
Kilbride entered service towards the end of the war, and was sold for commercial use in 1920. She was subsequently sold to Italian owners and was sunk by British aircraft in January 1943.
Construction and design
The Kil class was intended as a patrol and escort ship to equip the Auxiliary Patrol with better sea-keeping and greater endurance and speed than the trawlers that were being used by and then being built for built for the Auxiliary Patrol. Large orders were placed for the new design of "fast trawlers" from July 1917. The type was re-classified as a patrol gunboat in January 1918. The ships were long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of. Displacement was normal. The ships had a symmetrical, double-ended hull, with identical bow and stern, in order to make it harder for enemy submarines to estimate the ship's course.They were powered by a single triple-expansion steam engine, with steam supplied from a coal-fired cylindrical boiler. The machinery was rated at, giving a speed of. Design armament was a single 4-inch gun, with at least six depth charges also carried. The ships had a crew of 39 officers and other ranks.
Kilbride was launched at Hall Russell's Aberdeen shipyard on 21 August 1918.