HMS Melbreak (L73)

Melbreak underway in Plymouth Sound, 1943 (IWM)
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Melbreak
Ordered	28 July 1940
Builder	J. Samuel White, East Cowes, Isle of Wight
Laid down	23 June 1941
Launched	5 March 1942
Commissioned	10 October 1942
Honours and awards	Normandy 1944 Atlantic 1944–45 English Channel 1943–44 North Sea 1945
Fate	Scrapped in 1956
Badge	On a Field Red a sun in splendour Gold, pierced by a broken spear erect Block.
General characteristics
Class and type	Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement	1,050 long tons (1,070 t) standard 1,435 long tons (1,458 t) full load
Length	85.3 m (279 ft 10 in) o/a
Beam	10.16 m (33 ft 4 in)
Draught	3.51 m (11 ft 6 in)
Propulsion	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shaft Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp (14,000 kW)
Speed	27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h) 25.5 kn (29.3 mph; 47.2 km/h) full
Range	2,350 nmi (4,350 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h)
Complement	168
Armament	4 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk. VIII AA guns on quad mount MK.VII 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns on single mounts P Mk. III 2 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 110 depth charges, 4 throwers, 3 racks

HMS Melbreak was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was a member of the third subgroup of the class, and saw service in the Second World War. All the ships of this class were named after British fox hunts. She was the first Royal Navy warship with this name, after the Melbreak hunt in Cumbria.^[1] In 1942 she was adopted by the civil community of Cockermouth in Cumberland, as part of Warship Week.