Two Mermaid-class destroyers served with the Royal Navy during the First World War.

[2] They were three-funnelled turtle-backed destroyers with the usual Hawthorn funnel tops.

Built in 1896–1898, Mermaid and Cheerful were launched by R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie & Company from their Hebburn-on-Tyne shipyard.

Their Thornycroft boilers produced 6,100 hp to given them the required 30 knots (56 km/h) and they were armed with the standard 12-pounder gun and two torpedo tubes.

The almost identical Greyhound-class ships built subsequently at the same yard differed only by having Yarrow boilers.