HMS Earnest (1896)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Earnest
Builder:	Laird, Son & Co., Birkenhead
Laid down:	2 March 1896
Launched:	11 November 1896
Completed:	November 1897
Fate:	Scrapped, 1920
General characteristics
Class and type:	Earnest-class destroyer
Displacement:	395 long tons (401 t)
Length:	210 ft (64 m)
Beam:	21.5 ft (6.6 m)
Draught:	9.75 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:	vertical triple-expansion steam engines Coal-fired Normand boilers 6,300 hp (4,698 kW)
Speed:	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement:	63
Armament:	1 × QF 12-pounder gun 2 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes

HMS Earnest was a B-class torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy, one of six to be built from the line.^[1] She was completed by Laird, Son & Company, Birkenhead, in 1896, after 609 days of construction.^[2] She was part of the new 30-knotters that were requested by the Admiralty, amid fears of foreign boats and their speeds the requirements were increased from 27 knots.

She served with the Mediterranean Squadron, and was in August 1901 recommissioned at Malta as tender to the battleship HMS Caesar.^[3]

References

1. "Earnest Class". www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
2. "HMS Earnest". navalhistory.flixco.info. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
3. "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Wednesday, 14 August 1901. (36533), p. 4.