HMS Valkyrie (1917)

HMS Valkyrie (F05/D61) was a First World War V class flotilla leader of the Royal Navy. She was one of two destroyers ordered in July of 1916 from William Denny & Bros. Ltd shipyard under the 9th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1916-17. She was originally to be called HMS Malcolm but was renamed before being completed. The name Malcolm was later assigned to another destroyer leader.

Construction
HMS Valkyrie’s keel was laid on the 25th of May 1916 at the William Denny & Bros. Ltd shipyard in Dumbarton, Scotland. She was launched on the 12th of March 1917. She was 312 feet overall in length with a beam of 29.5 feet. Her mean draught was 9 feet, and would reach 11.25 feet under full load. She had a displacement of 1,188 tons standard and up to 1440 tons under full load. .

She was propelled by three Yarrow type water tube boilers powering Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines developing 27,000 SHP driving two screws for a maximum designed speed of 34 knots. She was oil-fired and had a bunkerage of 320 to 370 tons. This gave a range of 3500 nautical miles at 15 knots.

She shipped four Mk V QF (quick fire) 4-inch L/45 guns in four single center-line turrets. The turrets were disposed as two forward and two aft in super imposed firing positions. She also carried one QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun aft of the second funnel. Aft of the 3-inch gun, she carried four 21-inch Torpedo tubes mounted in pairs on the center-line.

History
HMS Valkyrie was commissioned into the Royal Navy on the 16th of June 1917 with the Pennant number F05. After commissioning she was modified to carry mines. She was damaged by a mine in Dec 1917. In 1918, Valkyrie was part of the 13th Destroyer Flotilla led by the light cruiser HMS Champion. In 1919 she was reassigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla and assigned the Pennant number D61. She maintained this pennant number through to her being stricken in 1936.

Disposition
In 1936 she was stricken from the active list and scrapped.