HMS Punjabi

Punjabi at anchor
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Punjabi
Namesake:	Punjabis
Ordered:	19 June 1936
Builder:	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, Scotland
Laid down:	1 October 1936
Launched:	18 December 1937
Completed:	29 March 1939
Identification:	Pennant number L21, later F21
Fate:	Sunk, 1 May 1942 in a collision with King George V
Badge:	On a Field Blue issuant from the base, the head of a soldier of the Punjab Regiment proper.
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Tribal-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,891 long tons (1,921 t) (standard) 2,519 long tons (2,559 t) (deep load)
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:	44,000 shp (33,000 kW) 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
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:	4 × twin QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns 1 × quadruple QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns 2 × quadruple QF .5-inch (12.7 mm) Mk III anti-aircraft machineguns 1 × quadruple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 × rack, 2 × throwers

HMS Punjabi was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service in the Second World War, being sunk in a collision with the battleship King George V. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name "Punjabi" which, in common with the other ships of the Tribal class, was named after an ethnic group of the British Empire.

She was ordered under the 1935 Naval Estimates, on 19 June 1936 from Scotts at Greenock, Scotland. She was launched on 18 December 1937 and commissioned on 23 March 1939 at a total cost of £343,005, which excluded items supplied by the Admiralty, such as weapons and communications outfits. Punjabi was commissioned for service in the 2nd Tribal Destroyer Flotilla in the Home Fleet, which was re-identified at the 6th Destroyer Flotilla in April 1939. While on work-up trials, she was redirected to aid in search and rescue attempts for the submarine Thetis, which had sunk in Liverpool Bay. She then rejoined the Home Fleet on exercises.

On the outbreak of war in September, Punjabi deployed with the Flotilla for Home Fleet duties including anti-submarine patrols and convoy defence in the North Western Approaches and the North Sea. In October, she made an unsuccessful attempt to salvage a crashed German flying boat. On 2 December, she sustained structural damage to her bows when she collided with the merchant vessel Lairdscrest south of Holy Island. She was under repair at Alexander Stephen and Sons' shipyard in Govan from 15 December-late February, when she rejoined the flotilla. She was then based at Scapa Flow on screening and patrol duties.

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Wikipedia