TCG Peyk-i Sevket (DD-1935)
With two battlecruisers to escort, the Ottoman Empire only had the two ex-M class destroyers that could fulfil that escort role. There were two old light cruisers available but they were only capable of 22-23 knots which was not really fast enough to screen 26 knot battlecruisers. The answer of course was to get some more 30+ knot ships. As usual with the Turkish Navy a lack of funds made the acquisition of more ships problematical. It was not till 1930 that funds became available to purchase a new pair of destroyers. The next question was where to have them built. Britain, France, Italy, Spain were all possibilities. After looking at the destroyer classes being built by the various countries, the Turkish Naval High Command decided that a variation of what appeared to be the successful Italian Navigatori Class would be suitable for their needs.
As thoughts were made to place an order for two vessels, feedback came through on service deficiencies with the Navigatori class. The Italian designers along with the Turkish appropriations team re-cast the design to cure the problems that had shown up in service. Stability was one of the major problems and to cure this the hull was widened and the bow was redesigned to be more weatherly. The biggest change to the design was the fitting of two twin 5.3" (135mm) dual purpose lightweight turrets in place of the Navigatoris three twin 4.7" open shielded mountings. What had been the centre mounting was replaced with a twin 37mm AA mounting. The mixed torpedo armament of the original design was fully fitted with 2 triple 21" mountings. The ships could be fitted for minelaying.
An initial order for two ships was placed in 1932, with orders for two more placed, one each year, in 1933 and 1934.
Not much more was done to the ships from completion till 1940 when the ships were sent one at a time back to Italy for refurbishment. This entailed the addition of another twin 37mm aft of the fore funnel, a new pair of 20mm cannons by the mainmast aft, while the original 13.2mm machineguns were replaced with 20mm cannons.
| Displacement | 2,100 tons std 2,950 tons full load | |
| Length | 352 ft | |
| Breadth | 36.5 ft | |
| Draught | 11 ft | |
| Machinery | 2 shaft steam turbines, 50,000shp | |
| Speed | 35 knots | |
| Range | 2700 miles at 18 knots (800 at 36 knots) | |
| Armament | As Received 1935 4 x 5.3" (2x2) 2 x 37mm AA (1x2) 6 x 13.2mm (6x1) |
As Modernised 1940-41 4 x 5.3" (2x2) 4 x 37mm AA (2x2) 8 x 20mm (8x1) |
| Torpedoes | 6 x 21" (2x3) | 6 x 21" (2x3) |
| Complement | 220 | |
| Notes | TCG Peyk-i Sevket | |
Original Navigatori class with three twin 4.7" mountings, short bow and narrow hull.