HMS Rotherham (H09)

Rotherham on completion, September 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Rotherham
Namesake:	Captain Edward Rotheram
Ordered:	2 April 1940
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Laid down:	10 April 1941
Launched:	21 March 1942
Completed:	27 August 1942
Commissioned:	August 1942
Decommissioned:	1945
Identification:	pennant number H09
Honours and awards:	Battle honours: Sabang 1944 Burma
Fate:	Sold to India, 1948
Badge:	On a Field Blue, a stag trippant Gold between a wreath of oak also Gold
India
Name:	INS Rajput
Namesake:	Rajput
Acquired:	1948
Commissioned:	27 July 1949
Decommissioned:	1976
Identification:	D141
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type:	R-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,705 long tons (1,732 t) light 2,425 long tons (2,464 t) full load
Length:	358 ft 3 in (109.2 m) o/a
Beam:	35 ft 9 in (10.9 m)
Draught:	9 ft 6 in (2.9 m)
Propulsion:	2 × Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers Parsons geared steam turbines 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) 2 shafts
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range:	4,675 nmi (8,658 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement:	237
Sensors and processing systems:	Type 290 air warning radar Type 285 ranging & bearing radar Huff-Duff (High-frequency Direction-finder)
Armament:	4 × QF 4.7 in Mk.XII (119 mm L/45), single mounts CP Mk.XVIII 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk.VIII (40 mm L/39), quad mount Mk.VII 6 × QF 20 mm Oerlikon, single mount P Mk.III 8 (2×4) torpedo tubes for 21 in Mk.IX torpedoes 4 × throwers & 2 × racks, 70 depth charges

HMS Rotherham was an R-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy during the Second World War, named after Captain Edward Rotheram, who commanded HMS Royal Sovereign during at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Rotherham was completed in 1942 and equipped as a flotilla leader, having slightly reduced armament to allow for the increased complement and working space required. Decommissioned in 1945, the ship was sold to India in 1948, serving as INS Rajput (D141) until 1976, when she was scrapped.

Rotherham was commissioned for service, after completing her sea trials, in August 1942. After a period of training at Scapa Flow, she was assigned to serve in the South Atlantic, operating as convoy escort between Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Cape Town and Durban, South Africa for the rest of the year.

From February 1944 Rotherham was deployed in the Indian Ocean, and in April joined the Eastern Fleet to take part in series of offensive operations against the Japanese in Sumatra and Java, and the Indian nationalist Azad Hind in the Andaman Islands, acting as an escort to aircraft carriers and battleships. In October 1944 Rotherham sailed to Simon's Town to refit.