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FIGHTING SHIPS OF THE WORLD
AUSTRALIA
TORPEDO SHIPS
BOOMERANG torpedo gunboats (1891)


Ships


Name No Yard No Builder Laid down Launched Comp Fate
Boomerang (ex-Whiting)     Armstrong, Elswick, UK 17.8.1888 24.7.1889 2.1891 sold 7.1905
Karakatta (ex-Wizard)     Armstrong, Elswick, UK 17.8.1888 27.8.1889 2.1891 sold 1.1905


Technical data


Displacement normal, t735
Displacement full, t

 

Length, m

70.1 pp

Breadth, m

8.23

Draught, m

3.20

No of shafts

2

Machinery

2 3-cyl VTE, 4 locomotive boilers

Power, h. p.

natural draught: 2500, forced draught: 3600

Max speed, kts

natural draught: 16.5, forced draught: 19

Fuel, t

coal 100

Endurance, nm(kts)2500(10)
Armament

2 x 1 - 120/40 QF Mk I/II/III/IV, 4 x 1 - 47/40 3pdr Hotchkiss Mk I, 1 - 356 TT (bow, aw), 2 x 2 - 356 TT (8 at all)

Complement

91



Standard scale images


<i>Boomerang</i> 1900
Boomerang 1900


Project history

This numerically large class showed a considerable increase in size over the Grasshoppers, and was sometimes known as the Assaye or Gossamer class. One of the torpedo tubes was fixed in the bow, the others in paired mounts on either side amidships. The resemblance to contemporary small cruisers was marked. Whilst the vessels built in the Royal Dockyards were allocated to the Royal Navy (provided under the Naval Defence Act, 1889), the four built by Armstrong were allocated to colonial stations, two to the Royal Indian Marine, and two (names were changed in 1890) to the Australian station.  The original intention had been to fit a similar gun armament to the Grasshoppers (l- 102mm, 6-47mm) but trials at Elswick had shown that the 120mm QF gun could fire 10 times per minute as against 2 times for the old 102mm BL so the new gun was adopted instead. Initially the class suffered from hull weakness.

Modernizations

None.

Naval service

No significant events.