HMS Imperial (D09)


HMS Imperial in September 1937, wearing the three black bands of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla on her aft funnel
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Imperial
Ordered: 30 October 1935
Builder: Hawthorn Leslie and Company
Cost: £257,117
Laid down: 22 January 1936
Launched: 11 December 1936
Commissioned: 30 June 1937
Identification: Pennant number: D09/I09
Motto: Deum cole Regum serva
("Honour God, Serve the King")
Honours and
awards:
Atlantic 1939
Mediterranean
Norway 1940
Crete 1941
Fate: Scuttled, 29 May 1941
Badge: On a Field Purple, two sceptres in saltire, surrmounted by an orb gold.
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type: I-class destroyer
Displacement: 1,370 long tons (1,390 t) (standard)
1,888 long tons (1,918 t) (deep load)
Length: 323 ft (98.5 m)
Beam: 33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught: 12 ft 5 in (3.8 m)
Installed power: 34,000 shp (25,000 kW)
Propulsion: 2 shafts, Parsons geared steam turbines
3 Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers
Speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range: 5,530 nmi (10,240 km; 6,360 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 145
Sensors and
processing systems:
ASDIC
Armament: 4 × 1 - 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns
2 × 4 - 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) machine guns
2 × 5 - 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
20 × depth charges, 1 rail and 2 throwers
Service record
Commanders: Lt.Cmdr. Charles Arthur de Winton Kitcat
Operations: Norwegian Campaign
Malta Convoys
Battle of Crete

HMS Imperial was an I-class destroyer commissioned in 1937, that served with the Royal Navy during World War II until she was scuttled by HMS Hotspur in 1941.

Construction

The ship was ordered under the 1935 Build Programme from Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn, on 30 October 1935 with a delivery date of 30 April 1937. The ship was laid down on 26 January 1936 and launched on 11 December the same year, and was the first RN warship to carry the name. Imperial was completed late, on 30 June 1937, after a delay in the delivery of the gun mountings. The contract price was £257,117 excluding items supplied by Admiralty such as guns and communication equipment.[1]

Service history

References

Notes
  1. ^ Mason, Geoffrey B. (2010). "HMS Imperial, destroyer". Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War II. http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-29I-Imperial.htm. Retrieved 12 March 2011. 
Bibliography