HMS Lookout (G32)

Lookout at Greenock, 21 January 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Lookout
Ordered:	31 March 1938
Builder:	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, (Greenock, Scotland)
Laid down:	23 November 1938
Launched:	4 November 1940
Commissioned:	30 January 1942
Identification:	pennant number: G32
Honours and awards:	Diego Suarez 1942 Malta Convoys 1942 Arctic 1942 North Africa 1942-43 Sicily 1943 Salerno 1943 South France 1944 Mediterranean 1943-45
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 6 January 1948
Badge:	On a Field per fess wavy White and Blue, a man in crow’s nest of Whaler, all proper.
General characteristics
Class and type:	L-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,920 tons
Length:	362.5 ft (110.5 m)
Beam:	36.7 ft (11.2 m)
Draught:	10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:	Two shafts Two geared steam turbines Two drum type boilers 48000 shp (35.8 MW)
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h)
Range:	5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement:	221
Armament:	Original configuration: 3 × 2 - QF 4.7-inch Mk XI dual purpose guns 1 × 1 - QF 4-inch Mk V anti-aircraft gun 1 × 4 - QF 2-pounder Mk VIII anti-aircraft guns 2 × 4 - QF .5-inch Vickers Mk III anti-aircraft machine guns 2 × 4 - 21-inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes

HMS Lookout was an L-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 4 November 1940 and broken up in 1948. She was one of only two L-class destroyers to survive the Second World War, the other being Loyal.

Ordered under the 1937 Programme, Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company were awarded the contract to build her. She would be the second Royal Navy ship to bear the name Lookout. Build was completed on 30 January 1942 and the tender cost was £440,204 which excluded items such as weapons and communications equipment supplied by the Admiralty.

After a successful Warship Week National Savings campaign in January 1942, HMS Lookout was adopted by the civil community of Burnley, Lancashire.

Lookout's sea trials were generally satisfactory, but were rather protracted through no fault of the ship. On 18 January 1942 Lookout underwent her gunnery trials which were entirely satisfactory. Gun mountings 'B' and 'X' lost two cartridge cases overboard when firing abeam, but this did not affect the outcome of the trial. The next day Lookout carried out her preliminary full power trail at a mean displacement of 2,320 tons. Her first attempt at a four-hour full power trial was carried out on 21 January 1942 but was abandoned due to bad weather conditions. Her next attempt at the trial was a success. On 20 January Lookout finally carried out the trial in a Force 6 wind. Her mean displacement was 2,625 tons with a mean power of 48,442 SHP giving a mean speed of 32.098 knots (59.445 km/h).

Lookout was with the Home Fleet in March 1942 when the German battleship Tirpitz made ineffective attempts to intercept Arctic convoys (Operation Sportpalast). One of Lookout's first operations took place on 4–7 March, when she was part escort to a battle squadron which included Renown, King George V and Duke of York. The battle squadron sailed to cover against any move by Tirpitz to intercept Russian convoys QP8 and PQ12. Tirpitz was out at sea during this time but failed to locate the convoys due to bad weather conditions. A straggler from PQ12 was however sunk by Friedrich Ihn, a destroyer who was screening Tirpitz.