HMS Spitfire (1912)

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HMS Spitfire was an Acasta-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, she was launched on 23 December 1912 and joined the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla. From the start of World War I she served with the Grand Fleet.

During the Battle of Jutland (31 May–1 June 1916), Spitfire faced the German battleship Nassau. Nassau tried to ram her, but Spitfire dodged; the ships collided anyway. Spitfire was badly damaged, with much of her upperworks destroyed by Nassau’s blasts, but she managed to rip off a 20-foot section of Nassau’s side plating. Both ships survived and returned to port.

Spitfire helped rescue survivors from the hospital ship Rhodesia after it was torpedoed by U-82 on 12 September 1918, about 160 miles off Fastnet.

Spitfire was sold for scrap on 9 May 1921 to the shipbreakers Thos. W. Ward.

Specifications:
- Length: 267 ft 6 in (81.5 m)
- Beam: 27 ft (8.2 m)
- Draught: 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m)
- Propulsion: Yarrow boilers and Parsons steam turbines
- Speed: 29 knots
- Armament: 3 × 4-inch guns, 1 × 2-pdr pom-pom, 2 × 21 inch torpedo tubes