HMS Duchess (H64)
{{Short description|British D-class destroyer}}
{{other ships|HMS Duchess}}
{{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMS Duchess.jpg |Ship caption=Duchess at anchor }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship name=HMS Duchess |Ship ordered=2 February 1931 |Ship original cost=£229,367 |Ship builder=Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, County DurhamThe Times (London), Tuesday, 19 July 1932, p. 5 |Ship laid down=12 June 1931 |Ship christened= |Ship completed=27 January 1933 |Ship commissioned=24 January 1933 |Ship fate=Sunk in a collision with {{HMS|Barham|04|6}}, 12 December 1939 |Ship motto=*Duci non trahi
|Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship notes=Badge: On a Field Blue, a Duchess's coronet Proper over a terrestrial globe Silver. }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship displacement=*{{convert|1375|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} (standard)
|Ship length={{convert|329|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} o/a |Ship beam={{convert|33|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|12|ft|6|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship power={{convert|36000|shp|kW|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=*2 × shafts, 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines
|Ship speed={{convert|36|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range={{convert|5870|nmi|lk=in|abbr=on}} at {{convert|15|kn}} |Ship complement=145 |Ship sensors=ASDIC |Ship armament=*4 × QF 4.7-inch Mark IX guns
}} |
HMS Duchess was a D-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early 1935. She was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea during late 1935 during the Abyssinia Crisis, before returning to her duty station where she remained until mid-1939. Duchess was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet just before the Second World War began in September 1939. While escorting the battleship {{HMS|Barham|04|6}} back to the British Isles, she was accidentally rammed by the battleship in thick fog and sank with heavy loss of life on 12 December 1939.
Description
Duchess displaced {{convert|1375|LT|t|0}} at standard load and {{convert|1890|LT|t|0}} at deep load. The ship had an overall length of {{convert|329|ft|m|1}}, a beam of {{convert|33|ft|m|1}} and a draught of {{convert|12|ft|6|in|m|1}}. She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of {{convert|36000|shp|lk=in}} and gave a maximum speed of {{convert|36|kn|lk=in}}. Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers. Duchess carried a maximum of {{convert|473|LT|t|0}} of fuel oil that gave her a range of {{convert|5870|nmi|lk=in}} at {{convert|15|kn}}. The ship's complement was 145 officers and men.Whitley, p. 102
The ship mounted four 45-calibre QF 4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, Duchess had a single 12-pounder (3-inch (76.2 mm)) gun and two quadruple Mk I mounts for the 0.5-inch Vickers Mk III machine gun. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for British 21 inch torpedo torpedoes.Friedman, pp. 215, 299 One depth charge rail and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began.English, p. 141
Service and collision
Duchess was ordered on 2 February 1931 under the 1930 Naval Estimates and was laid down at the yards of the Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, County Durham on 12 June 1931. She was launched on 19 July 1932 and commissioned on 24 January 1933, at a total cost of £229,367, excluding equipment supplied by the Admiralty, such as weapons, ammunition and wireless equipment. The ship was initially assigned to the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean and made a brief deployment to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea in September–November 1933. Upon her return, her superheaters were repaired at Malta between 18 December and 6 January 1934. She was given a refit at Chatham Dockyard from 3 September to 23 October to prepare the ship for service on the China Station.English, pp. 51, 60
Duchess arrived in Hong Kong in January 1935 where she joined the 8th Destroyer Flotilla. The ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in the Red Sea from September to November during the Abyssinian Crisis. She made a number of goodwill visits during her time on the station as well as conducting anti-piracy patrols. During a typhoon at Hong Kong on 2 September 1937, a merchant ship crushed Duchess{{'}}s stern when it dragged its anchors. Her repairs were not completed until 14 October.
The ship remained on the station until late August 1939, when the imminent start of the Second World War caused the Admiralty to order her to take up her war station with the Mediterranean Fleet at Malta. Duchess arrived there on 12 October and remained in the Mediterranean for the next two months. In December the ship, along with her sisters {{HMS|Delight|H38|6}}, {{HMS|Duncan|D99|6}} and {{HMS|Dainty|H53|6}}, was assigned to escort the battleship HMS Barham back to the UK, and they departed Gibraltar on 6 December. During the morning of 12 December, Barham collided with Duchess off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog.Whinney, pp. 52–53 The destroyer capsized and her depth charges exploded, killing 136 of her crew including her commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Robert C. M. White, who was trapped in his sea cabin when the sliding door jammed.
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite book|last=English|first=John|title=Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s|year=1993|publisher=World Ship Society|location=Kendal, England|isbn=0-905617-64-9}}
- {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2009 |isbn=978-1-59114-081-8 |author-link=Norman Friedman}}
- {{cite book|last=Jones|first=Richard. M.|title=Collision in the Night - The Sinking of HMS Duchess|publisher=Lodge Books|location=Bridlington|date=2019|isbn=978-0244112349}}
- {{cite book|last=Lenton|first=H. T.|title=British & Empire Warships of the Second World War |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1998 |isbn=1-55750-048-7 |author-link=Henry Trevor Lenton}}
- {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia |year=2000| publisher=Cassell & Co.|location=London|isbn=1-85409-521-8|author-link=Michael J. Whitley}}
- {{cite book|last=Whinney|first=Bob|title=The U-Boat Peril: A Fight for Survival|publisher=Cassell Military Classics|location=London, United Kingdom|date=1998|isbn=0-304-35132-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/uboatperilfightf0000whin}}
External links
- [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4373.html HMS Duchess at Uboat.net]
- [http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-19D-Duchess.htm HMS Duchess's wartime service on naval-history.net]
{{C and D class destroyer}}
{{December 1939 shipwrecks}}
{{coord|55.317|N|6.100|W|display=title|source:dewiki}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchess}}
Category:Ships built on the River Tyne
Category:C and D-class destroyers
Category:World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom
Category:Maritime incidents in December 1939
Category:Ships sunk in collisions
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Irish Sea
Category:Maritime incidents in Scotland