Aetos-class destroyer

Aetos class (as completed)

The Aetos class were 89.3 metres (293 ft 0 in) long overall and 86.9 metres (285 ft 1 in) at the waterline with a beam of 8.4 metres (27 ft 7 in) as built. The destroyers had a draught of 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in), a standard displacement of 980 long tons (1,000 t) and a fully loaded displacement of 1,175 long tons (1,194 t). The Aetos class was powered by two Parsons geared turbines turning two shafts and fed steam by five coal-fired White-Forster boilers. The engines were rated at 22,000 shaft horsepower (16,405 kW) and had a designed speed of 32 knots (59 km/h). They carried 230 long tons (230 t) of coal. The destroyers were initially armed with four single-mounted 4-inch (102 mm) guns and four single-mounted 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. They had an initial complement of 90.[2][3]

The four ships in this class had originally been ordered by Argentina in 1909 from the English shipyard Cammell Laird in Birkenhead as the San Luis class. The four ships were launched in 1911 as San Luis, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán.[2][5] They were purchased by Greece for 148,000 pounds each in October 1912, as the outbreak of the First Balkan War was imminent,[6] and renamed Aetos, Ierax, Panthir and Leon respectively.[2]

The ships hoisted the Greek flag and sailed independently from Britain, still manned with Argentine crews, for Algiers. Aetos suffered a breakdown during the voyage and had to be towed to Algiers. There the ships were taken over by Greek crews, carried on the steamer Ionia. Although the ships were completely unknown to the Greeks before then, and all manuals and labels on the ship were in Spanish, within 24 hours all had been made ready to sail and began their voyage to Greece.[6] Within a few days of arriving at the Salamis Naval Base, they were sent to join the main Greek battlefleet at Lemnos, apart from Aetos, which underwent five weeks of repairs. Due to the haste with which the purchase had been made, only limited ammunition for operations was purchased: some 3,000 shells for the ships' guns, and no torpedoes. As a result, during the First Balkan War, the ships served and were designated as "scout ships" (ανιχνευτικά) rather than destroyers (αντιτορπιλικά).[6]

In December 1916, the French Navy landed troops near Athens to put pressure on the royal government of King Constantine I of Greece during the Greek "National Schism". After French troops were ambushed by Greeks, French naval ships fired upon the city. In retaliation for the series of events, France seized several Greek vessels, including three destroyers of the Aetos class.[7] Aetos, Ierax and Leon were seized by France in December 1916 and placed in service with the French Navy.[2] In French service, the ships had a complement of 102. They served with the French Navy in 1917–1918, primarily in an anti-submarine capacity.[8] Following some objections by senior French naval officers, the Aetos class were officially returned to the Greek Navy in 1917. However, due to a shortage of trained Greek personnel and that they were refitting in French naval yards, there was a delay in the actual handover. In 1918, the four destroyers, alongside the cruiser Georgios Averoff, joined the British Royal Navy's Aegean Squadron at Mudros.[9]

Following the end of World War I, the four destroyers were extensively refitted in 1924–1925, undergoing further modifications in 1931. In World War II, after the Axis invasion of Greece, the four ships served with the Allies. Leon was damaged by German aircraft on 22 May 1941 and sunk at Suda Bay, Crete on 15 May 1941. The remaining three were refitted in Madras, Calcutta and Port Sudan during 1941 and 1942. Ierax, Panthir and Aetos remained in service until 1945, serving under British Royal Navy control. In 1944–1945 they were made station ships. The three destroyers were discarded in 1946 following the war.[2][3]

• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Couhat, Jean Labayle (1974). French Warships of World War I. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0445-5.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1986). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Halpern, Paul G. (2016) [1986]. The Naval War in the Mediterranean: 1914–1918. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-90784-3.
• Whitley, M. J. (2000) [1988]. Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aetos-class destroyer.

• Naval History
• (in Spanish) Exploradores de 1912 - Astillero Laird Brothers (accessed 2017-02-04)