HMS Duchess (H64)

Duchess at anchor
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Duchess
Ordered	2 February 1931
Builder	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, County Durham[1]
Cost	£229,367
Laid down	12 June 1931
Launched	19 July 1932 [1]
Completed	27 January 1933
Commissioned	24 January 1933
Motto	Duci non trahi ("Led, not driven")
Fate	Sunk in a collision with HMS Barham, 12 December 1939
Notes	Badge: On a Field Blue, a Duchess's coronet Proper over a terrestrial globe Silver.
General characteristics
Class and type	D-class destroyer
Displacement	1,375 long tons (1,397 t) (standard) 1,890 long tons (1,920 t) (deep)
Length	329 ft (100.3 m) o/a
Beam	33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught	12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Installed power	36,000 shp (27,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts, 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Speed	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	5,870 nmi (10,870 km; 6,760 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	145
Sensors and processing systems	ASDIC
Armament	4 × QF 4.7-inch Mark IX guns 1 × 12-pounder (3 in (76.2 mm)) anti-aircraft (AA) gun 2 × 4 - QF .5-inch Vickers Mark III AA machine guns 2 × 4 - 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 rail and 2 throwers

HMS Duchess was a D-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early 1935. She was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea during late 1935 during the Abyssinia Crisis, before returning to her duty station where she remained until mid-1939. Duchess was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet just before the Second World War began in September 1939. While escorting the battleship HMS Barham back to the British Isles, she was accidentally rammed by the battleship in thick fog and sank with heavy loss of life on 12 December 1939.