HMS Essington (K353)

HMS Essington on 19 February 1944
History
Name:	unnamed (DE-67)
Ordered:	10 January 1942
Builder:	Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Hingham, Massachusetts
Laid down:	15 March 1943
Launched:	19 June 1943
Completed:	7 September 1943
Commissioned:	never
Fate:	Transferred to United Kingdom 7 September 1943
Acquired:	Returned by United Kingdom 19 October 1945
Struck:	5 December 1945
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 22 December 1945
United Kingdom
Class and type:	Captain-class frigate
Name:	HMS Essington (K353)
Namesake:	Rear Admiral Sir William Essington (1753-1816), British naval officer who commanded from his flagship HMS Triumph at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797
Acquired:	7 September 1943
Commissioned:	7 September 1943
Decommissioned:	1945
Honours and awards:	Battle honours for Biscay 1943-1944, Atlantic 1943-1945, Arctic 1944, Normandy 1944, and English Channel 1944-1945
Fate:	Returned to United States 19 October 1945
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,400 tons
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	36.75 ft (11.2 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion:	Two Foster-Wheeler Express "D"-type water-tube boilers GE 13,500 shp (10,070 kW) steam turbines and generators (9,200 kW) Electric motors for 12,000 shp (8,900 kW) Two shafts
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h)
Range:	5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	186
Sensors and processing systems:	SA & SL type radars Type 144 series Asdic MF Direction Finding antenna HF Direction Finding Type FH 4 antenna
Armament:	3 × 3 in (76 mm) /50 Mk.22 guns 1 × twin Bofors 40 mm mount Mk.I 7–16 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns Mark 10 Hedgehog antisubmarine mortar Depth charges QF 2-pounder naval gun
Notes:	Pennant number K353

The second HMS Essington (K353), and the first ship of the name to see service, was a British Captain-class frigate of the Royal Navy in commission during World War II. Originally constructed as a United States Navy Buckley-class destroyer escort, she served in the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1945.

The ship was laid down as a U.S. Navy destroyer escort designated DE-67 by Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc., in Hingham, Massachusetts, on 15 March 1943 and launched on 19 June 1943. She was transferred to the United Kingdom upon completion on 7 September 1943.

Commissioned into service in the Royal Navy under the command of Acting Lieutenant Commander Wilfred Lambert, RNVR, as the frigate HMS Essington (K353) on 7 September 1943 simultaneously with her transfer, the ship began acceptance trials in Casco Bay in Maine. After passing her trials, she proceeded to Bermuda in October 1943 for shakedown and additional crew training. Once that was complete, she proceeded in early November 1943 from Bermuda to St. John’s in the Dominion of Newfoundland, where she was assigned to the escort of a convoy bound for the United Kingdom which departed St. John's on 8 November 1943. During the transatlantic passage, she was detached and reassigned to the escort of Convoy MKS 30/SL 139, then under attack in the North Atlantic Ocean by German submarines of the Schill wolfpack, against which she was in combat by 21 November 1943.