HMS Fearless in 1935
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Fearless |
Ordered | 17 March 1933 |
Builder | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead |
Cost | £245,728 |
Laid down | 17 July 1933 |
Launched | 12 May 1934 |
Completed | 19 December 1934 |
Identification | Pennant number: H67 |
Fate | Torpedoed by Italian aircraft and scuttled, 23 July 1941 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | F-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 329 ft (100.3 m) o/a |
Beam | 33 ft 3 in (10.13 m) |
Draught | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (deep) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines |
Speed | 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph) |
Range | 6,350 nmi (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Complement | 145 |
Sensors and processing systems | ASDIC |
Armament |
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Service record | |
Part of: |
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Operations: | |
Victories: |
HMS Fearless was an F-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36 during the Abyssinia Crisis. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she spent time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Several months after the start of the war in September 1939, Fearless helped to sink one submarine and sank another one in 1940 during the Norwegian Campaign. She was sent to Gibraltar in mid-1940 and formed part of Force H where she participated in the attack on the Vichy French ships at Mers-el-Kébir and the bombardment of Genoa. Fearless helped to sink one final submarine in 1941 and escorted many Malta convoys in the Mediterranean before she was torpedoed by an Italian bomber and had to be scuttled on 23 July 1941.