&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:HMS_Griffin_(H31)_IWM_FL_013646.jpg) Griffin in 1936
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Griffin |
| Namesake | Griffin |
| Builder | Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness, UK |
| Cost | £248,518 |
| Laid down | 20 September 1934 |
| Launched | 15 August 1935 |
| Commissioned | 6 June 1936 |
| Motto |
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| Fate | Transferred to Canada, 1 March 1943 |
| Canada | |
| Name | Ottawa |
| Namesake | Ottawa River |
| Acquired |
|
| Commissioned | 7 April 1943 |
| Decommissioned | May 1945 |
| Identification | Pennant number: H31 |
| Honours and awards |
|
| Fate | Sold for scrap, August 1946 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | G-class destroyer |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 323 ft (98.5 m) |
| Beam | 33 ft (10.1 m) |
| Draught | 12 ft 5 in (3.8 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts, 2 geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) |
| Range | 5,530 nmi (10,240 km; 6,360 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement | 137 (peacetime), 146 (wartime) |
| Armament |
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HMS Griffin (H31) was a G-class destroyer, built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1930s. In World War II she took part in the Norwegian Campaign of April–May 1940 and the Battle of Dakar in September before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in November. She generally escorted larger ships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they protected convoys against attacks from the Italian Fleet. Griffin took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and the evacuations of Greece and Crete in April–May 1941. In June she took part in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign and was escorting convoys and the larger ships of the Mediterranean Fleet until she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in March 1942.
Griffin saw no action in the Japanese Indian Ocean raid in April, but was escorting convoys for most of her time in the Indian Ocean. In June she returned to the Mediterranean to escort another convoy to Malta in Operation Vigorous. Beginning in November 1942, she was converted to an escort destroyer in the United Kingdom and was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy on 1 March 1943. The ship, now renamed HMCS Ottawa, was assigned to escort convoys in the North Atlantic until she was transferred in May 1944 to protect the forces involved with the Normandy Landings. Working with other destroyers, Ottawa sank three German submarines off the French coast before she returned to Canada for a lengthy refit. After the end of the European war in May 1945 she was used to bring Canadian troops until she was paid off in October 1945. Ottawa was sold for scrap in August 1946.