Name HMS Comet Type Destroyer Beam 25 ft 6 in (7.77 m) Length 75 m | Class and type Acorn class Displacement 730 to 780 tons Launched 23 June 1910 | |
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Fate Sunk in collision, 6 August 1918 Builder Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company | ||
HMS Comet was an Acorn class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw active service in the First World War. She was built under the 1909–1910 programme by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Govan. She was launched on 23 June 1910 and lost after a collision while under tow on 6 August 1918 in the Mediterranean. Initially it was believed that she was torpedoed and sunk by an Austro-Hungarian U-boat, but this was dismissed since no submarine claimed her sinking.
The Acorn class marked a return to oil-firing as pioneered in the Tribal or F class of 1905 and HMS Swift of 1907. This change allowed a generally smaller vessel than the Beagles even with an increase in armament. The Comet was built to an individual design by Fairfield Shipbuilding although the Acorns had a more-or-less uniform appearance, with three funnels, a tall, thin fore funnel, a short, thick central and a short narrow after stack. Comet had two 4-inch guns on the fo'c'sle and on the quarterdeck. The 12-pounder guns were amidships, one on each side between the first pair of funnels, and the torpedo tubes were abaft the funnels, mounted singly with a searchlight position between them.