| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Cranstoun |
| Laid down: | 9 June 1943 |
| Launched: | 28 August 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 13 November 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 3 December 1945 |
| Struck: | 7 February 1946 |
| Honours and awards: |
English Channel North Foreland[1] |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 20 November 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Captain-class frigate |
| Displacement: | 1,400 long tons (1,422 t) standard 1,740 long tons (1,768 t) full |
| Length: | 306 ft (93 m) o/a 300 ft (91 m) w/l |
| Beam: | 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Foster Wheeler Express "D"-type water-tube boilers GE 13,500 shp (10,067 kW) steam turbines and generators (9,200 kW) Electric motors 12,000 shp (8,948 kW) 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) |
| Range: | 5,500 nmi (10,200 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 186 |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
SA & SL type radars Type 144 series Asdic MF Direction Finding antenna HF Direction Finding Type FH 4 antenna |
| Armament: | 3 × 3 in (76 mm) /50 Mk.22 guns 1 × twin Bofors 40 mm mount Mk.I 7-16 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns Mark 10 Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar Depth charges QF 2 pounder naval gun |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: | Lt. Eric W. Rainey, RN (23 November 1943–23 June 1945) A/Lt.Cdr. Alfred S. Miller, DSC, RNZNVR (23 June–September 1945) A/Lt.Cdr. John P. Kilbee, RNR (September–October 1945)[2] |
| Victories: | U-1063 (15 April 1945) |
HMS Cranstoun (K511) was a Captain-class frigate of the British Royal Navy that served in the last two years of World War II. The ship was laid down as a Buckley-class destroyer escort at the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard at Hingham, Massachusetts on 9 June 1943, with the hull number DE-82, and launched on 28 August 1943. The ship was transferred to the UK under Lend-Lease on 13 November 1943,[3] and named after Captain James Cranstoun, an officer who served in the American Revolutionary and French Revolutionary Wars.
Cranstoun served as a convoy escort, and was attached to the Nore Command, and then the 19th Escort Group.[4]
At 21:14 on the evening of 15 April 1945 Cranstoun and Loch Killin, while part of the escort to Convoy TBC 128, detected the German submarine U-1063 in Bigbury Bay, Devon. The two ships mounted a coordinated attack, with Loch Killin using her Squid anti-submarine mortar three times and Cranstoun her Hedgehog mortar once, to force the U-boat to the surface. Burges then also joined the attack, as the U-boat was illuminated by the ship's searchlights and fired on with 20 mm and 40 mm guns. U-1063 attempted to escape, but Loch Killin attacked with depth charges and sank her. Only 17 of the crew survived.[5]
Cranstoun was returned to the U.S. Navy on 3 December 1945, struck from the Navy List on 7 February 1946, and sold for scrapping on 20 November 1947.[3]
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