HMS Ashanti (F51)
HMS Ashanti going out on patrol at Hvalfjörður, Iceland, 6 February 1942.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Ashanti |
| Namesake: | Ashanti people |
| Ordered: | 19 June 1936 |
| Builder: | William Denny, Dumbarton |
| Cost: | £340,770 |
| Laid down: | 23 November 1936 |
| Launched: |
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| Completed: | 21 December 1938 |
| Identification: |
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| Motto: |
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| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Broken up, 1949 |
| Badge: | On a Field barry wavy of six Blue and White a porcupine Gold. |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type: | Tribal-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | |
| Length: | 377 ft (115 m) (o/a) |
| Beam: | 36 ft 6 in (11.13 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | 2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed: | 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) |
| Range: | 5,700 nmi (10,600 km; 6,600 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 190 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
ASDIC |
| Armament: |
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HMS Ashanti was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Following the style of her sister ships she was named for an ethnic group, in this case the Ashanti people of the Gold Coast in West Africa. She served in the Second World War and was broken up in 1949. She was the first of two Royal Navy ships to bear the name Ashanti.
During her trials Ashanti made 37.385 knots (69.237 km/h; 43.022 mph) at 367.7 RPM with 45,031 shp (33,580 kW) at 2,020 long tons (2,050 t).
Although it was initially intended for all Tribal-class destroyers to visit the land of the people after whom they were named, Ashanti was one of the few to actually do this. She sailed to Takoradi, Gold Coast, on 27 February 1939. During the visit, the ship's company was presented with a silver bell and a gold shield by the Asantehene, the ceremonial leader of the Ashanti, then the Chief Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II. The ship also accepted visitors from the tribe, many of whom presented good-luck charms and symbols of valour and survival to the ship.
In May 1939, the ship went to France on a good-will visit. It was in preparation for the looming Second World War and for British seamen to make friends with their future allies of the French Navy.
The following month, Ashanti, as part of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, attempted to rescue the stricken submarine Thetis. Although the submarine was found still afloat, salvage attempts failed and only four men were saved when the ship sank with the remaining 99 trapped within.
Ashanti and the 6th Flotilla started the war by working with the French Navy, but as the war dragged on, they saw less and less of each other. By 1940, her main role was anti-submarine patrols, escort duties and supporting capital ships. She was forced back to port in March 1940 after seawater leaked in and mixed with the boiler feedwater.
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Wikipedia