NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
L1 (ex-E57)			Vickers, Barrow	5.1916	10.5.1917	11.1917	sold 3.1930
L2 (ex-E58)			Vickers, Barrow	5.1916	6.7.1917	12.1917	sold 3.1930
L3			Vickers, Barrow	6.1916	1.9.1917	1.1918	sold 2.1931
L4			Vickers, Barrow	6.1916	17.11.1917	2/1918	sold 2.1934
L5			Swan Hunter, Wallsend	8.1916	26.1.1918	5.1918	sold 1931
L6			Beardmore, Dalmuir	10/1916	14.1.1918	7/1918	sold 1.1935
L7			Cammell Laird, Birkenhead	5/1916	24.4.1917	12.1917	sold 2.1930
L8			Cammell Laird, Birkenhead	5.1916	7.7.1917	3.1918	sold 10.1930

Technical data

Displacement standard, t
Displacement normal, t	891 / 1074
Length, m	70.4
Breadth, m	7.15
Draught, m	4.04
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 Vickers diesels / 2 electric motors
Power, h. p.	2400 / 1600
Max speed, kts	17 / 10.5
Fuel, t	diesel oil 78
Endurance, nm(kts)	3800(10) / 200(2)
Armament	L1 - 4, 7: 1 x 1 - 76/45 20cwt QF Mk II, 6 - 450 TT (4 bow, 2 beam, 10) L5, 8: 1 x 1 - 102/40 QF Mk IV, 6 - 450 TT (4 bow, 2 beam, 10) L6: 1 x 1 - 102/41 QF Mk VII, 6 - 450 TT (4 bow, 2 beam, 10)
Complement	35
Diving depth operational, m	50

Standard scale images

Project history

By 1916 there was an urgent need for a design to replace the 'E' class, which despite its wartime improvements was six years old, and hard to 'stretch' to accommodate further improvements. Alter all the experiments with double-and partially double-hulled boats, the Admiralty reverted in the well-tried saddle-tank design, but with higher speeds. The first pair, E57 and E58 were only intended to be lengthened 'E's, but showed so many improvements that they were chosen as prototypes for a new class and numbered L1 and L2. These had been ordered in February 1916 and laid down three months later.

L3-L8 were ordered in May 1916, and they were completed between November 1917 and March 1918. Armament varied: L 1 had a 3in AA gun on a disappearing mounting, and initially some had no gun at all. Eventually all carried their 4in gun on a platform at the forward end of the conning tower,

Modernizations

1918, L1, L3: - 1 x 1 - 76/45; + 1 x 1 - 102/41 QF Mk VII

1918, L2, L4, L7: - 1 x 1 - 76/45; + 1 x 1 - 102/40 QF Mk IV

Naval service

No significant events.