HMS Wessex was to have been a Z-class destroyer, but was renamed HMS Zenith prior to launch.
HMS Wessex (R78) was a W-class destroyer, previously named HMS Zenith, but renamed prior to launching in 1943. She was transferred to the South African Navy in 1950 and renamed SAS Jan van Riebeeck. She was decommissioned in 1975, and sunk as a target in 1980.
HMS Wessex was the Southampton base of the Royal Naval Reserve, established after the Second World War and closed in 1994. In addition, two ships that served at different times as tenders to the base were also known as HMS Wessex:
This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.