HMAS Stuart (D-00/100)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career (Australia)
HMAS Stuart in 1938
Builder:	Hawthorn, Leslie and Company
Laid down:	18 October 1917
Launched:	22 August 1918
Commissioned:	21 December 1918 Royal Navy
Decommissioned:	11 October 1933 Royal Navy
Struck:	3 February 1947
Reinstated:	11 October 1933 Royal Australian Navy 1 September 1939 Royal Australian Navy
Motto:	"Always prepared"
Honours and awards:	Battle honours: Calabria 1940 Malta Convoys 1941 Greece 1941 Matapan 1941 Mediterranean 1940-41 Libya 1940-41 Crete 1941
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,530 tons
Length:	332 ft 6 in (101.3 m)
Beam:	31 ft 9 in (9.7 m)
Draught:	11 ft 4 in (3.5 m)
Propulsion:	Brown Curtis Turbines
Speed:	36.5 knots
Armament:	Original armament: 5 x 4.7-inch (119 mm) guns 1 x 3-inch (76 mm) gun 2 x 2-pounder guns 6 x 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (two triple mountings)

HMS Stuart (D-00/100) was a British Scott class destroyer, laid down by Hawthorn, Leslie and Company at Newcastle-on-Tyne in England on 18 October 1917, launched on 22 August 1918, commissioned into the Royal Navy on 21 December 1918, transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on 11 October 1933 and commissioned as HMAS Stuart.

[edit] RAN career

HMAS Stuart paid off at Sydney on 1 June 1938 and was placed in commission from 29 September to 30 November 1938. She recommissioned on 1 September 1939 under the command of Commander H.M.L. Waller RAN, and served in the Mediterranean with the 19th Destroyer Division, the famous "Scrap Iron Flotilla". She took part in coastal bombardments of enemy strong points in Libya and led the 10th Destroyer Flotilla at the Battle of Calabria in July 1940. On 30 September 1940, she attacked and sank the Italian submarine Gondar while in company with a Royal Air Force Short Sunderland flying boat.

Stuart supported the 6th Australian Division when it captured Tobruk on 22 January 1941, and participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941. She then assisted in the evacuation of Allied troops to Crete in April 1941 and the evacuation from Crete in May 1941, patrolled in support of the inshore bombarding forces in the Syrian campaign in June 1941, and served with the "Tobruk Ferry Service" for the supply and reinforcement of the beleaguered Australian garrison at Tobruk. She made 24 runs in June and July 1941, before returning to Australia in August 1941 for refit. Stuart conducted escort duties in New Guinea and Australian waters until January 1946.

HMAS Stuart paid off on 27 April 1946 and was sold for scrap to T. Carr and Company, Limited, of Sydney on 3 February 1947.