The Almirante Lynch class destroyers were a group of ships built for the Chilean Navy

Chilean Navy

-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...

 just before World War I. The Chileans had long been customers of British shipyards and ordered six ships from J. Samuel White

J. Samuel White

J. Samuel White was a British shipbuilding firm based in Cowes, taking its name from John Samuel White . It came to prominence during the Victorian era...

 in 1911. These destroyers were a private design by J. Samuel White that were significantly larger and heavier armed than their contemporary British destroyers. They had four funnels, a tall, narrow fore funnel and three broad, short funnels behind.

They were initially armed with six single QF 4 inch guns, unusually arranged with four on the forecastle

Forecastle

Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...

 - two sided in front of the wheelhouse and two sided abreast it - the remaining pair being sided on the quarterdeck. These guns were of a novel Elswick

Armstrong Whitworth

Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...

 design for the Chileans and when the ships were rearmed they were replaced with standard Royal Navy models. As rearmed in 1918 they carried a BL 4.7 inch gun on the forecastle and another on a bandstand between the after pair of funnels, retained the pair of 4 inch guns abreast the wheelhouse and had two QF 2 pounder pom-poms

QF 2 pounder naval gun

The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 1.575 inch British autocannon, used famously as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing...

.

Only two ships were delivered before the outbreak of war and served in the Chilean Navy until 1945. The remaining four ships were purchased by the British in 1914 and fought in the Royal Navy during World War I as the Faulknor class flotilla leaders

Faulknor class leader

The Faulknor class were a class of flotilla leaders that were under construction in the United Kingdom for the Chilean Navy at the outbreak of World War I. These ships were purchased by the British, taken over and completed for the Royal Navy for wartime service...

. The three surviving ships were returned to the friendly nation of Chile in 1920, but being worn out were scrapped in 1933.

The class of ships was named after Admiral Patricio Lynch

Patricio Lynch

Patricio Javier de los Dolores Lynch y Solo de Zaldívar was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and a Rear Admiral in the Chilean navy, and one of the principal figures of the later stages of the War of the Pacific...

, Chilean sailor, hero of the War of the Pacific

War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...

.

Ships

Ship	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
	28 September 1912	1913	Decommissioned 1945
	28 September 1912	January 1914	Decommissioned 1945
Almirante Riveros, (ex-), ex-Almirante Simpson	26 February 1914	late 1914	Returned to Chile 1920, Scrapped 1933
Almirante Uribe, (ex-), ex-Almirante Goni	25 May 1914	Late 1914	Returned to Chile 1920, Scrapped 1933
Almirante Williams, (ex-)	2 December 1914	1915	Returned to Chile 1920, Scrapped 1933
, ex-Almirante Riveros	5 March 1915	Early 1916	Sunk during Battle of Jutland Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only... , 31 May 1916

Armament

• 6 × 4 in (101.6 mm) guns (ex British ships had 2 × 4.7 in (119.4 mm) and 2 × 4 inch guns)
• 4 × machine guns (2 × pom-poms
  QF 2 pounder naval gun
  The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 1.575 inch British autocannon, used famously as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing...
  
  in ex-British ships)
• 6 × 21 in (533.4 mm) torpedo tubes (4 in ex-British ships)