Thornycroft type destroyer leader
The Thornycroft type leader or "Shakespeare" class were a class of five destroyer leaders designed by John I. Thornycroft & Company and built by them at Woolston, Southampton for the Royal Navy towards the end of World War I. They were named after historical naval leaders. Only "Shakespeare" and "Spenser" were completed in time for wartime service. The other three were completed after the war, "Broke" and "Keppel" after being towed to Royal dockyards for completion, and two further ships - "Saunders" and "Spragge" - were cancelled. The function of a leader was to carry the flag staff of  a destroyer flotilla, therefore they were enlarged to carry additional crew, offices and signalling equipment, allowing a fifth gun to be carried. These ships were very similar to the Admiralty type leader, but had Thornycroft design characteristics, the most noticeable being the broad, slab-sided funnels. The design was used as the basis for several ships built for foreign navies in the 1920s. Ships. The first two ships to this design were ordered under the War Emergency Programme, in April 1916: A third was ordered in April 1917: Four more were ordered from Thornycroft in April 1918, but with the  end of the War the first pair were completed by HM Dockyards and the second pair were cancelled; the second ship was initially named "Rooke", but was renamed "Broke" in April 1921. Two more vessels were ordered at the same time, to be built to this design by Cammell Laird, but it was subsequently decided to build these instead to the Admiralty type flotilla leader design and in the event both were subsequently cancelled: