French destroyer Maillé Brézé (1933)
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 A sister-ship of the Maillé Brézé |
|
| Career (France) | |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé |
| Builder: | Ch de St Nazaire Panhoet |
| Launched: | 9 November 1931 |
| Commissioned: | 6th April 1933 |
| Fate: | lost by accidental explosion 30 April 1940, Greenock, Scotland |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Vauquelin class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2400 tonnes |
| Length: | 129 metres |
| Beam: | 11.84 metres |
| Draught: | 4.97m metres |
| Propulsion: | Geared turbines, 4 boilers giving 64000 SHP |
| Speed: | 36 knots |
| Range: | 3650 nm at 18 knots |
| Complement: | 220 officers and men |
| Armament: |
5x138mm/40 Modèle 1927 guns |
The Maillé Brézé was a Vauquelin class destroyer of the French Navy.
On 30 April 1940, at 14:15, as Maillé Brézé was anchored at the Tail of the Bank off Greenock, a torpedo tube misfunctioned and launched an armed torpedo on the deck, setting fire to the fuel tanks and the forward magazine, which however did not explode.
At 15:15, the crew abandoned ship due to the danger of explosion, except for numerous sailors trapped in the mess hall. Around 16:30, a few sailors returned to the ship to flood the aft magazine, and by 19:30 the fire was controlled by the Greenock firemen. By that time, Maillé Brézé was so low in the water that she began sinking before she could be towed, and she went down with those still trapped in the forward part. The accident killed six, wounded 47 and caused 21 to go missing [1].
She was raised in 1955 and broken up.
