HMS Cavalier (R73)
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HMS Cavalier (R73) was a C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at Cowes on 28 March 1943, launched on 7 April 1944, and commissioned on 22 November 1944.
[edit] Service duty
She served in World War II, joining the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, taking part in operations off Norway. In February 1945 she escorted convoy RA-64 from the Kola Inlet in Russia, suffering attacks from planes and U-boats and a force 12 hurricane and severe icing on a ship with an open bridge, and losing only three of thirty-four ships. This action earned Cavalier a battle honour.
HMS Cavalier was one of 96 War Emergency Programme destroyers ordered for the war effort between 1940-42. She was among the first ships to be built with a partially welded hull, the forward and after parts, while amidships remained riveted to ensure strength. The new process gave the ship additional speed. In fact in 1970, a race was arranged between HMS Cavalier and the frigate HMS Rapid to decide which was faster. Cavalier beat Rapid by 30 yards, after the latter lifted a safety valve, reaching an average speed of 31.8 knots.
Cavalier was decommissioned in 1972, the last surviving destroyer of the Royal Navy to have served in World War II.
[edit] Decommissioned life
After decommissioning at Chatham Dockyard, she was laid up in Portsmouth. As a unique survivor, after a five year campaign led by Lord Louis Mountbatten of HMS Kelly fame, the ship was bought by the Cavalier Trust for £65,000 and handed over on Trafalgar Day 1977 in Portsmouth. By selling the ship to the Trust, the UK Government and the Royal Navy severed all formal connection and responsibility for the ship, a special warrant was issued that allows her to retain the title "HMS" (Her Majesty's Ship) and fly the White Ensign, a privilege normally only enjoyed by service ships in the Royal Navy.
Moved to Southampton, "Cavalier" opened as a museum and memorial ship in August 1982. However, commercially this was not a success, and in 1983 she had been moved to Brighton, where she formed the centre piece of a newly built yacht marina.
In 1987, "Cavalier" was brought to the River Tyne to form the centrepiece of a national shipbuilding exhibition centre planned by South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council (STMBC) in the former shipyard of Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, builders of a whole series of similar destroyers including HMS Kelly. Unfortunately the ambitious plans for the museum came to nothing, and STMBC, faced with continuing maintenance costs of £30,000pa and a hardening of public opinion against unnecessary expenditure, resolved to sell the ship and wind up the venture in 1996. The ship sat in a dry dock (due to a previous list) in a rusting condition, awaiting a buyer or scrapping in situ.
After the reforming of the Cavalier Trust, and a debate in Parliament, in 1998 "Cavalier" was bought by Chatham Historic Dockyard for display as a museum ship. Arriving on 23 May 1998, HMS Cavalier now resides in No. 2 dry-dock where HMS Victory was built
