HMS Harvester (H19)

HMS Harvester after 1942 conversion to escort destroyer
History
Brazil
Name	Jurua
Ordered	6 December 1937
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down	3 June 1938
Fate	Purchased by the United Kingdom, 5 September 1939
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Handy
Launched	29 September 1939
Acquired	5 September 1939
Commissioned	23 May 1940
Renamed	HMS Harvester, January 1940
Identification	Pennant number: H19[1]
Fate	Sunk by U-432, 11 March 1943
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Brazilian H-class destroyer
Displacement	1,350 long tons (1,370 t) (standard) 1,883 long tons (1,913 t) (deep load)
Length	323 ft (98.5 m)
Beam	33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught	12 ft 5 in (3.8 m)
Installed power	34,000 shp (25,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts Parsons geared steam turbines 3 Admiralty water-tube boilers
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	145
Sensors and processing systems	ASDIC
Armament	3 × 1 - QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns 2 × 4 - .50 cal machine guns 2 × 4 - 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 110 × depth charges, 3 rails and 8 throwers

HMS Harvester was an H-class destroyer originally ordered by the Brazilian Navy with the name Jurua in the late 1930s, but bought by the Royal Navy after the beginning of World War II in September 1939. Almost immediately after being commissioned, in May 1940, the ship began evacuating Allied troops from Dunkirk and other locations in France. Afterwards she was assigned to the Western Approaches Command for convoy escort duties. Harvester and another destroyer sank a German submarine in October. She was briefly assigned to Force H in May 1941, but her anti-aircraft armament was deemed too weak and she was transferred to the Newfoundland Escort Force in June 1941 for escort duties in the North Atlantic. The ship was returned to the Western Approaches Command in October 1941 and was converted to an escort destroyer in early 1942. Harvester was torpedoed and sunk in March 1943 by a German submarine after having rammed and sunk another submarine the previous day while escorting Convoy HX 228.