HMS Jamaica (C44)

Jamaica at anchor, 18 September 1943
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Jamaica
Namesake:	Jamaica
Ordered:	1938 Naval Programme
Builder:	Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	28 April 1939
Launched:	16 November 1940
Commissioned:	29 June 1942
Decommissioned:	20 November 1957
Struck:	1960
Motto:	Non sibi sed patriae (Latin: "Not for oneself, but for one's country")
Nickname(s):	'The Fighting J'
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 14 November 1960
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Crown Colony-class light cruiser
Displacement:	about 8,631 long tons (8,770 t) (standard load) 11,017 long tons (11,194 t) (deep load)
Length:	555 ft 6 in (169.3 m)
Beam:	62 ft (18.9 m)
Draught:	19 ft 10 in (6.0 m)
Installed power:	80,000 shp (60,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 shafts, Parsons geared steam turbines 4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Speed:	32.25 knots (59.73 km/h; 37.11 mph)
Range:	6,250 nmi (11,580 km; 7,190 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement:	733 (peacetime), 900 (wartime)
Armament:	4 × triple 6-inch (152 mm) guns 4 × twin 4-inch (102 mm) AA guns 2 × quadruple 2-pounder (40 mm) AA guns 2 × triple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Engine and boiler rooms: 3.25 in (83 mm) Decks: 2–3.5 in (51–89 mm) Magazines: 2–3.5 in (51–89 mm) Gun turrets: 1–2 in (25–51 mm)
Aircraft carried:	2 × Supermarine Sea Otter
Aviation facilities:	1 × catapult, 2 × hangars

HMS Jamaica, a Crown Colony-class cruiser of the Royal Navy, was named after the island of Jamaica, which was a British possession when she was built in the late 1930s. The light cruiser spent almost her entire wartime career on Arctic convoy duties, except for a deployment south for the landings in North Africa in November 1942. She participated in the Battle of the Barents Sea in 1942 and the Battle of North Cape in 1943. Jamaica escorted several aircraft carriers in 1944 as they flew off airstrikes that attacked the German battleship Tirpitz in northern Norway. Late in the year she had an extensive refit to prepare her for service with the British Pacific Fleet, but the war ended before she reached the Pacific.

Jamaica spent the late 1940s in the Far East and on the North America and West Indies Station. When the Korean War began in 1950 she was ordered, in cooperation with the United States Navy, to bombard North Korean troops as they advanced down the eastern coast. The ship also provided fire support during the Inchon Landing later that year. Jamaica was refitted late in the year and returned to Great Britain in early 1951 where she was placed in .

She was recommissioned in 1954 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1955 Jamaica was used to play HMS Exeter in the film Battle of the River Plate, in company with her wartime partner HMS Sheffield as HMS Ajax. In 1956 the ship participated in Operation Musketeer, the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal. Jamaica was paid off in 1958 and sold for scrap in 1960.