HMS Simoom (sometimes incorrectly spelled Simoon) was an destroyer which served with the Royal Navy during World War I. Launched on 30 October 1916, the vessel operated as part of the Harwich Force until torpedoed by the German destroyer on 23 January 1917. The ship's magazine exploded and 47 people died. The name was reused by the first , , launched on 26 January 1918. Design and development Simoom was one of eight destroyers ordered by the British Admiralty on 21 December 1915 as part of the Seventh War Construction Programme. The design was generally similar to the preceding M class, but differed in having geared turbines, the central gun mounted on a bandstand and minor changes to improve seakeeping. The ship was named after the simoom, a dry wind that sweeps across the Arabian peninsula. The destroyer was long overall, with a beam of and a draught of . Displacement was . Power was provided by three Yarrow boilers feeding two Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines rated at . Each turbine drove a single shaft to give a design speed of . Two funnels were fitted, two boilers exhausting through the forward funnel. A total of of fuel oil was carried, giving a design range of at . Armament consisted of three Mk IV QF guns on the ship's centreline, with one on the forecastle, one aft on a raised platform and one between the funnels. A single 2-pounder (40 mm) pom-pom anti-aircraft gun was carried, while torpedo armament consisted of two twin mounts for torpedoes. The ship had a complement of 90 officers and ratings. Construction and career Construction was very swift, with the keel laid down by John Brown & Company at Clydebank in May 1916, launching taking place in October and fitting out completed in December. The build took a very impressive 214 days, faster than any of the rest of the class. The vessel started preliminary trials on 16 December, completing trials in six days. On commissioning, Simoom joined the 10th Destroyer Flotilla as part of the Harwich Force under the flotilla leader . The destroyer was allocated the pennant number F57. The vessel formed part of the force led by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt that put out to intercept a flotilla of eleven destroyers of the Imperial German Navy, led by the flotilla leader , in the North Sea on 22 January 1917. Alongside fellow destroyers