HMS Wessex (D43)

History

United Kingdom
Class and type:	Admiralty W-class destroyer
Name:	HMS Wessex
Ordered:	9 December 1916
Builder:	Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Tyneside, England
Laid down:	25 May 1917
Launched:	12 March 1918
Completed:	11 May 1918
Commissioned:	11 May 1918
Identification:	Pennant number: F32 (June 1918) D43 (interwar)
Motto:	Proles militum ("Offspring of soldiers")
Honours and awards:	Battle honour for Atlantic 1939-1940
Fate:	Sunk 24 May 1940
Badge:	The Dragon of Egbert in red on a gold field
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,100 tons
Length:	300 ft (91 m) o/a, 312 ft (95 m)p/p
Beam:	26.75 ft (8.15 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m) standard, 11.25 ft (3.43 m) in deep
Propulsion:	3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers Brown-Curtis steam turbines 2 shafts 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
Speed:	34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range:	320-370 tons oil, 3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), 900 nmi (1,700 km) at 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Complement:	110
Armament:	4 × QF 4 in Mk.V (102mm L/45), mount P Mk.I 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) or; 1 × QF 3 inch 20 cwt (76 mm), mount HA Mk.II 6 (2x3) tubes for 21 in torpedoes

The first HMS Wessex (D43) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and the early months of World War II.

Wessex was ordered on 9 December 1916 as part of the 10th Destroyer Order of the 1916-1917 Naval Programme and was laid down by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Tyneside, England, on 25 May 1917. She was launched on 12 March 1918, completed on 11 May 1918, and commissioned the same day. She was assigned the pennant number F32 in June 1918; it was changed to D43 during the interwar period.

Wessex served in the Grand Fleet for the rest of World War I, and was in attendance at the surrender of the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet in November 1918.

During the interwar period, Wessex served in the 6th Destroyer Flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet. She later was assigned to duty with the Royal Navy's torpedo school at Portsmouth, HMS Vernon.

When the United Kingdom entered World War II in early September 1939, Wessex and the destroyers HMS Keppel (D84), HMS Vanessa (D29), HMS Vesper (D55), HMS Viscount (D92), HMS Vivacious (D36), HMS Vortigern (D37), and HMS Wakeful (H88) were assigned to the 17th Destroyer Flotilla at Plymouth for convoy defence and patrol duties in the English Channel and Southwestern Approaches. She continued in this role until April 1940.

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