In 1936, the Royal Navy ordered sixteen large Tribal class destroyers to compete with the similarly sized vessels being built for Japan, Germany and Italy. Canada ordered four ships from British shipyards and built another four at Halifax. Australia built three ships for its navy.

The ships protected convoys and hunted U-boats in the battle of the Atlantic, the Norway Campaign and the Mediterranean. Twelve out of the sixteen Royal Navy Tribals were sunk, and one of the Canadian Tribals.

The Tribals are considered beautiful ships and are remembered with great affection to this day. They are named after ethnic groups and many share names with an earlier Tribal class of destroyers that served in World War I.

General characteristics

The exact specifications of the ships varied depending on when and where they were built. Some details, like the armament, changed during the course of the war. These specifications are for the original design.

• Displacement: 1959 tons (2519 full complement)
• Length: 377 feet
• Armament:
  • 8 x 4.7 guns (four 2-gun turrets)
  • 4 x 2pdr
  • 8 x 0.5 inch machine guns (4 double mounts)
  • 4 x 21 inch torpedo tubes
  • depth charge throwers (30 charges)
• Speed: 36 knots
• Power: 44,000 shp Pearson geared turbine engines
• Complement: 190

Ships

Royal Navy

• Afridi (lost 3 May 1940
• Ashanti
• Bedouin (lost 15 June 1942)
• Cossack (lost 24 October 1941)
• Eskimo
• Gurkha (lost 9 April 1940)
• Maori (lost 12 February 1942)
• Mashona (lost 28 May 1941)
• Matabele (lost 17 January 1942)
• Mohawk (lost 16 April 1941)
• Nubian
• Punjabi (lost 1 May 1942)
• Sikh (lost 14 September 1942)
• Somali (lost 20 September 1942)
• Tartar
• Zulu (lost 14 September 1942)

Royal Canadian Navy

• Athabascan I lost April 29, 1944
• Athabascan II
• Cayuga
• Haida
• Huron
• Iroquois
• Micmac
• Nootka
• fictional Missinabi created by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for a radio serial during the Second World War using a fictional Indian tribe mentioned by Stephen Leacock in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.

Royal Australian Navy

• Arunta
• Bataan
• Warramunga

The ships today

Haida, the only surviving Tribal, is being restored and preserved as a museum in the harbour of Hamilton, Ontario Canada.

The front half of Maori is under 13 meters of water in Marsamaxett Harbour, Valletta, Malta where it sunk during World War II. It is a well-known scuba diving site.

Books about the Tribals

• HMCS Haida: Battle Ensign Flying by Barry M Gough
• Tribal Class Destroyers by Peter Hodges
• The Tribals by Martin H Brice
• The Unlucky Lady by Len Burrow and Emile Beudoin . Athabaska I was the only Canadian Tribal sunk during World War II.

External links

• HMCS Haida web site
• Canadian Tribal Destroyer Association
• Specifications for each of the ships