Sold for Scrap 1920

HMS Waveney, built by Hawthorn, launched 16/4/1903. Sold for breaking up at Grays,10/2/1920.

The River or E class destroyer was a class of torpedo boat destroyer (TBD) built for the Royal Navy at the turn of the 20th century that saw extensive service in World War I. All the ships were named after British rivers, and as such were the first Royal Navy destroyer class to be named systematically.

In the River design can be seen the genesis of the "true destroyer", with the typical weatherly raised forecastle and a balanced armament of guns and torpedoes. This was a departure from previous British designs that had a low "turtleback" forecastle, which, although intended to clear the bows, caused them to dig in to the sea, resulting in a very wet conning position. As a result of this, and with a general increase in size and more solid construction, the Rivers became the first truly ocean going and useful TBDs in Royal Navy service. Despite making only 25 knots (previous classes had made 27 to 30 knots), the increased seaworthiness meant that they could maintain this speed into a sea and that they remained workable and fightable at the same time. All ships had either two broad funnels or two pairs of narrow funnels. The armament was improved over earlier classes to four QF 12 pounder guns, carried on a bandstand on the forecastle, two sided abreast the wheelhouse at main deck level and the fourth gun aft. The torpedo tubes were carried singly, one between the funnels and one aft.

All ships were coal fired and had triple expansion steam engines, except Eden, Stour and Test which were powered by steam turbines. Eden had three screws on each of her two shafts to transmit the power at the high revolutions of the direct drive turbines.

All ships surviving the war were sold out of service by 1920