How the Bittern hull led to different escort roles

The larger Bittern design offered an alternative while the Royal Navy tested the very small Kingfishers. Satisfaction with its hull led to the slightly enlarged Egret, whose eight four-inch guns illustrate the later increase in armament. The Hunt escort destroyer shared that hull lineage, with a stronger emphasis on surface fighting and a destroyer identity. Continued sloop construction maintained a specialist anti-submarine cadre alongside those destroyers. The Black Swans belonged to that specialist branch, with a concentration on anti-submarine warfare comparable here to the later Type 26's role.