HMS Kempenfelt (I18)
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| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | C class destroyer |
| Name: | HMS Kempenfelt |
| Namesake: | Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt |
| Ordered: | 1930 |
| Builder: | J. Samuel White, Cowes |
| Laid down: | 18 October 1930 |
| Launched: | 29 October 1931 |
| Commissioned: | 30 May 1932 |
| Out of service: | Transferred to Royal Canadian Navy on 19 October 1939 and renamed HMCS Assiniboine |
| Career (Canada) |  |
| Class and type: | C class River class |
| Name: | HMCS Assiniboine |
| Namesake: | Assiniboine River |
| Commissioned: | 19 October 1939 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 August 1945 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping but wrecked en route to breakers on 10 November 1945 wreck broken up in situ in 1952 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,375 tons (1,397 tonnes) standard 1,942 tons (1,974 tonnes) deep |
| Length: | 329 feet (100 m) o/a |
| Beam: | 33 feet (10.1 m) |
| Draught: | 12.5 feet (3.8 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3 x Yarrow boilers, Parsons geared steam turbines, 36,000 shp (27,000 kW) on 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 35.5 kt |
| Range: | 5,500 nmi at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Complement: | 181 (10 officers, 171 ratings) |
| Armament: |
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| Motto: | Fideliter : “Faithfully” |
| Badge: | Badge: On a field Black a Sword proper between two wings greenover two wavelets Silver and Blue. |
HMS Kempenfelt was a C class destroyer of the Royal Navy that served in the interwar and period, as well as the Second World War. A flotilla leader, she was the last of her class to be transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. She served with them throughout the rest of the war, surviving it to be broken up after its end.
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[edit] Commissioning and early years
HMS Kempenfelt was ordered under the 1929 Naval Estimates and was laid down on 18 October 1930 at the yards of J. Samuel White, Cowes. She was launched a year later on 29 October 1931 and was commissioned on 30 May 1932. She was immediately put into service, and would remain continuously active until the outbreak of war in September 1939.
[edit] Wartime service and transfer
Kempenfelt took up her war station in September with the 18th Destroyer Flotilla, operating out of Plymouth and carrying out convoy defence duties and anti-submarine patrols in the English Channel and the South Western Approaches. On 3 September she was deployed with the A class destroyers HMS Acasta, HMS Acheron, HMS Antelope and HMS Ardent, then based at Portland. On 9 September Kempenfelt and the destroyers Ardent and Echo escorted the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous on an anti-submarine operation (Operation AS2). Kempenfelt then returned to Plymouth on 14 September to prepare for her transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy.
On 28 September 1939 Kempenfelt collided with the British merchant SS Hester off Newhaven. Kempenfelt was under repair at Devonport Dockyard until 7 November. In the meantime the transfer was approved in October, and Kempenfelt was formally transferred on 19 October, being renamed HMCS Assiniboine.
[edit] As HMCS Assiniboine
HMCS Assiniboine spent most of her wartime career with the Canadians escorting convoys across the Atlantic. She survived the war, but was considered obsolete by its end, and was sold for breaking up. Whilst on tow to the breakers, she ran aground. Attempts to get her off failed, and she was left to rust until eventually being broken up in situ in 1952.
[edit] References
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- HMS Kempenfelt's career
- HMS Kempenfelt at Uboat.net
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