HMS Highlander (H44)

Aerial view of Highlander
History
Brazil
NameJaguaribe
Ordered16 December 1937
BuilderJohn I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston
Laid down28 September 1938
FatePurchased by the United Kingdom, 5 September 1939
United Kingdom
NameHMS Highlander
Launched19 October 1939
Acquired5 September 1939
Commissioned18 March 1940
IdentificationPennant number: H44[1]
FateSold for scrap, 27 May 1946
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeBrazilian H-class destroyer
Displacement
Length323 ft (98.5 m)
Beam33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught12 ft 5 in (3.8 m)
Installed power34,000 shp (25,000 kW)
Propulsion
Speed36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range5,530 nmi (10,240 km; 6,360 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement152
Sensors and
processing systems
ASDIC
Armament

HMS Highlander was an H-class destroyer that had originally been ordered by the Brazilian Navy with the name Jaguaribe in the late 1930s, but was bought by the Royal Navy after the beginning of World War II in September 1939 and later renamed. When completed in March 1940, she was assigned to the 9th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet. The ship was assigned to convoy escort duties in June with the Western Approaches Command, sinking one German submarine in October. Highlander was transferred to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in mid-1941 to escort convoys off West Africa, but returned to the United Kingdom in August. She became flotilla leader of Escort Group B-4 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force in early 1942 and continued to escort convoys in the North Atlantic for the rest of the war. The ship became a target ship after the war ended and was sold for scrap in mid-1946.

  1. ^ Whitley, p. 112