HMS Hurst Castle (K416)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HMS Hurst Castle (K416) was a Castle-class corvette of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. She was named after Hurst Castle at the western end of the Solent in Southern England.

Built by the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, in Dundee and launched on 23 February 1944, she served as a convoy escort during the Second World War. She was sunk by the German submarine U-482 on 1 September 1944 northwest of Ireland whilst part of the escort for convoy CU-36. The submarine fired a single T-5 "Gnat" acoustic homing torpedo. 16 of the ships company were killed, the youngest being only 16 years of age (Donald Bennett).

Only one other Castle class corvette was sunk by U-boats, HMS Denbigh Castle on 13 February 1945.

As of today 11th January 2007, there are stil 5 living crew members living around the UK.