French destroyer Mameluk

Sister ship Le Hardi at anchor
History
France
NameMameluk
NamesakeMameluk
Ordered4 May 1936
BuilderAteliers et Chantiers de la Loire, Nantes
Laid down1 January 1937
Launched18 February 1939
In service17 June 1940
Captured27 November 1942
FateScuttled, 27 November 1942
General characteristics
Class and typeLe Hardi-class destroyer
Displacement
Length117.2 m (384 ft 6 in) (o/a)
Beam11.1 m (36 ft 5 in)
Draft3.8 m (12 ft 6 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph)
Range3,100 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement187 officers and enlisted men
Armament

Mameluk was one of a dozen Le Hardi-class destroyers built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. The ship was completed during the Battle of France in mid-1940 and her first mission was to help escort an incomplete battleship to French Morocco only days before the French signed an armistice with the Germans in June. She then helped to escort one of the battleships damaged by the British during their July attack on Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, back to France in November. Mameluk returned to Morocco in early 1941 for convoy-escort duties and then was transferred back to France in late 1941.

When the Germans occupied Vichy France after the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942 and tried to seize the French fleet intact, the destroyer was one of the ships scuttled to prevent their capture. The Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) unsuccessfully attempted to salvage her in 1943. The ship was refloated in 1947 and subsequently scrapped.