HMS Wanderer (D74)

HMS Wanderer in October 1942
History
United Kingdom
Class and type:	Admiralty Modified W-class destroyer
Name:	HMS Wanderer
Ordered:	January 1918
Builder:	Fairfield's of Glasgow
Laid down:	7 August 1918
Launched:	1 May 1919
Commissioned:	18 September 1919
Recommissioned:	1939
In service:	1919-1945
Out of service:	1945-1946
Reclassified:	1943 Long Range Escort
Motto:	Vagantes numquam erramus 'Wandering we never stray'
Honours and awards:	Atlantic (1939-45) Norway 1940 Sicily 1943 Normandy 1944 Arctic 1944 English Channel 1944
Fate:	Sold to be broken up for scrap on 31 January 1946
Badge:	Gold Bee on a Blue Field
General characteristics
Class and type:	Admiralty modified W class destroyer
Displacement:	1,112 tons standard
Length:	300 feet (91 m) o/a, 312 feet (95 m) p/p
Beam:	29.6 feet (9.0 m)
Draught:	11.7 feet (3.6 m) under full load
Depth:	18.3 feet (5.6 m)
Propulsion:	As built 1919: 3 × Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, 2 shafts, 27,120 shp, 260 rpm LRE conversion 1943 2 × Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, 2 shafts, 18,000 shp
Speed:	1919: 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) 1943: 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph)
Range:	320-370 tons oil 3,500 nmi at 15 kt 900 nmi at 32 kt
Complement:	1919: 134 1943: 193
Sensors and processing systems:	1943 LRE conversion Type 271 target indication radar Type 291 air warning radar
Armament:	As built 1919: 4 × BL 4.7in (120mm) Mk.I guns on CP VI mounting 2 × QF 2 pounder (40 mm) Mk.II guns 1 × .303 inch Maxim gun 4 × .303 inch Lewis Guns 6 × 21-inch Torpedo Tubes (in 2 × triple mountings) 1 × Single Depth charge chute 1943 LRE conversion: 2 × BL 4.7 in (120mm) Mk.I guns 1 × .303 inch Lewis Gun 4 × Twin Oerlikon 20 mm cannon's 1 × Single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 2 × Double Depth charge throwers 2 × Double Depth charge chutes 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar (firing 24 × 32 pound spigot mounted bombs) March 1944: + 1 QF 2 pounder gun + 1 single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

HMS Wanderer (D74/I74) was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was the seventh RN ship to carry the name Wanderer. She was ordered in January 1918 to be built at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan in Glasgow, being launched in May 1919. She served through World War II where she was jointly credited with five kills on German U-boats, more than any other ship of her class. In December 1941 the community of Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire officially adopted her. In 1943 she was one of twenty one V&W class destroyers to be converted as Long Range Escorts. She was decommissioned after the war and sold for scrap in 1946.

HMS Wanderer's keel was laid down on 7 August 1918 at Fairfield's shipyard in Govan, Scotland. She was launched on 1 May 1919 and the build was completed on 18 August. The average cost for this class of ship was £262,478 which could be divided into hull cost of £104,726 (weighing 548 tons) and machinery cost of £109,308 (weighing 417 tons).

She was 312 feet overall in length with a beam of 29.5 feet. Her mean draught was 9 feet, and would reach 11.7 feet under full load. She had a displacement of 1,112 tons as standard.

She was propelled by three Yarrow type 250 pound per square inch water tube boilers, powering Brown-Curtis geared independent oil fuelled steam turbines developing 27,120 SHP and driving two screws at 260 RPM for a maximum designed speed of 34 knots. She was oil-fired and had a bunkerage of 320 to 350 tons. This gave a range of between 3500 nautical miles at 15 knots to 900 nautical miles at 32 knots.