HMS Protector in 1952, prior to be being refitted for Antarctic service |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Protector |
| Builder: | Yarrow Shipbuilders, Glasgow |
| Laid down: | August 1935 |
| Launched: | 20 August 1936 |
| Commissioned: | 30 December 1936 |
| Reclassified: | Antarctic patrol ship in 1955 |
| Fate: | Sold 10 February 1970 for breaking up |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 2,900 tons as net layer 3,450 tons as ice patrol ship |
| Length: | 346 ft (105 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draught: | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers Two British Thomson-Houston geared turbines |
| Speed: | 19 knots |
| Complement: | 21 officers 238 ratings |
| Armament: | Twin 4" gun mounting Twin Oerlikon mountings Hotchkiss 3-pdr saluting gun |
| Aircraft carried: | Two Westland Whirlwind helicopters |
HMS Protector was an Antarctic patrol vessel of the Royal Navy.
She was laid down as a fast net layer by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Glasgow in August 1935, launched in August 1936 and commissioned on 30 December 1936. She served in the South Atlantic and in the Norwegian Campaign during World War II before being hit by an aerial torpedo in the Mediterranean. She was towed to Bombay and repaired before returning to Britain after the end of hostilities.
After time in the fleet reserve as a training ship she was refitted as an ice patrol ship in Devonport, with a rudimentary hangar and flight deck for two Westland Whirlwind helicopters installed. She made her first Antarctic patrol in the winter of 1955/56, serving the Falklands and the British Antarctic Survey Bases, and returned 13 more times before she was sold for scrapping at Inverkeithing on 10 February 1970.
During her patrols she rescued the passengers and crew of the icebound MV Theron, including Sir Edmund Hillary and Dr Vivian Fuchs.[1] In 1957, she rescued the passengers of the RRS Shackleton, which struck an iceberg and had to perform emergency repairs to keep from sinking.[2] She was replaced by HMS Endurance.