HMS Jervis Bay (F40)
Jervis Bay at Dakar in 1940
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Jervis Bay |
| Builder: | Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Launched: | 1922, as SS Jervis Bay |
| Acquired: | August 1939 |
| Commissioned: | October 1940 |
| Fate: | Sunk, 5 November 1940 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Armed Merchant Cruiser |
| Displacement: | 14,164 long tons (14,391 t) |
| Length: | 549 ft (167 m) |
| Beam: | 68 ft (21 m) |
| Draught: | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 254 |
| Armament: | |
HMS Jervis Bay was a British liner later converted into an armed merchant cruiser, pennant F40. She was launched in 1922, and sunk on 5 November 1940 by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
The ship was launched as the Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line steamer Jervis Bay, named after the Australian bay of that name (the line named all its ships after bays). She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in August 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War, and armed with seven 1898-vintage 6 in (150 mm) guns and two 3 in (76 mm) guns of 1894 design.
After her acquisition and commissioning, Jervis Bay was initially assigned to the South Atlantic station before becoming a convoy escort in May 1940. Given brief repairs at Halifax, Nova Scotia, she became the sole escort for the 37 merchant ships of Convoy HX-84 from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Britain.
When the convoy encountered the German warship Admiral Scheer about 755 nautical miles (1,398 km) south-southwest of Reykjavík, the Captain of Jervis Bay, Edward Fegen, ordered the convoy to scatter, and set his own ship on a course towards the German warship to draw its fire. Jervis Bay was hopelessly outgunned and outranged by the 28 cm (11 inch) guns of the German ship, but it attacked the larger ship with its guns, firing more to distract the German ship from the merchantmen than with hopes of doing any damage. Although the German's shells ravaged the Jervis Bay, and Fegen was wounded and many crew killed, Fegen and the surviving crew fought on until their ship was sunk. Captain Fegen, and many of the crew, went down with the ship.
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