HMS Blean (L47)

Blean in dazzle camouflage
Career (United Kingdom)
Name: HMS Blean
Builder: Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn-on-Tyne
Launched: 15 January 1942
Commissioned: 23 August 1942
Identification: pennant number: L47
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk by U-443 on 11 December 1942 11 miles north-west of Oran.
General characteristics
Type:Type III Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement:1,050 long tons (1,070 t) standard
1,435 long tons (1,458 t) full load
Length:85.3 m (279 ft 10 in) o/a
Beam:10.16 m (33 ft 4 in)
Draught:3.51 m (11 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
2 shaft Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp (14,000 kW)
Speed:27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h)
25.5 kn (29.3 mph; 47.2 km/h) full
Range:2,350 nmi (4,350 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h)
Complement:168
Armament:4 × QF 4 in Mark XVI on twin mounts Mk. XIX
4 × QF 2-pounder Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII
2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III
2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
110 depth charges, 4 throwers, 3 racks

HMS Blean was a Type III Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was named after the Blean Beagles Hunt at the village of Blean just north of Canterbury.

Built at Hebburn-on-Tyne by Hawthorn Leslie, she was launched on 15 January 1942 and commissioned on 23 August. While escorting the British convoy KMF-4 off the Algerian coast, Blean was intercepted by U-443 on 11 December 1942 11 miles north-west of Oran. The U-boat aimed one torpedo against her and then one against the convoy, but both hit Blean and sank her 60 miles (97 km) off the coast, with the loss of 89 men.

A memorial to her was unveiled in the church of St.s Cosmus and Damian in the village of Blean at 3pm on 10 December 2006 by Patrick Evans, Archdeacon of Canterbury, at a service attended by a daughter of a survivor, nephews of one of those lost, Mrs Jeanne Harrison (Sheriff of Canterbury), Commodore Jim Patrick RN, and Viscount De L'Isle (Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Kent).

External links

Coordinates: 35°55′N 1°50′W / 35.917°N 1.833°W