British A- through H-class destroyers were broadly comparable in size to American ships from the Farragut through Sims classes. These were the general-purpose destroyers each navy needed under treaty and operational pressures. Their design centered on torpedoes because an underwater explosion could open a hole too large for a target to control. Speed and torpedo attack therefore drove machinery demands that made destroyers less economical convoy companions than sloops.
Notable Point · 1:07:08-1:08:07
Why torpedoes defined interwar destroyers
A British-American destroyer comparison explains why speed and torpedo attack, rather than the sloop's economical endurance, drove interwar destroyer design.