HMS Wivern (D66)

HMS Wivern in Londonderry Port in 1920
History
United Kingdom
Class and type:	Admiralty Modified W-class destroyer
Name:	HMS Wivern
Namesake:	Variant spelling of wyvern
Ordered:	April 1918
Builder:	J. Samuel White, Cowes, Isle of Wight
Laid down:	19 August 1918
Launched:	16 April 1919
Completed:	23 December 1919
Commissioned:	23 December 1919
Decommissioned:	1920s or 1930s
Recommissioned:	1939
Decommissioned:	April 1943
Recommissioned:	September 1944
Decommissioned:	summer 1945
Motto:	Beware
Nickname(s):	"Tiddly Wiv"
Honours and awards:	Battle honours for: Atlantic 1939-1943 North Africa 1942-1943 North Sea 1944-1945
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 18 February 1947
Badge:	A gold wyvern on a green field
General characteristics
Class and type:	Admiralty Modified W-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,140 tons standard, 1,550 tons full
Length:	300 feet (91 m) o/a, 312 feet (95 m) p/p
Beam:	29.5 feet (9.0 m)
Draught:	9 feet (2.7 m), 11.25 feet (3.43 m) under full load
Propulsion:	Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, 2 shafts, 27,000 shp
Speed:	34 knots (63 km/h)
Range:	320–370 tons oil 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) 900 nautical miles (1,700 km) at 32 knots (59 km/h)
Complement:	127
Sensors and processing systems:	Type 286M Air Warning Radar fitted 1940 Type 271 Surface Warning Radar fitted 1940
Armament:	As built 1920: 4 × BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns, mount P Mk.I 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) 6 × 21-inch Torpedo Tubes 1940 SRE conversion: 3 × BL 4.7 in (120mm) Mk.I L/45 guns 1 × 3 in (76 mm) AA gun 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) 3 × 21-inch torpedo tubes (one triple mount) 2 × depth charge racks twin QF 6 pounder 10 cwt gun (1942 – replaced ‘A’ gun)

The second HMS Wivern (D66, later I66), was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II.

Wivern was ordered in April 1918 as part of the 13th Order of the 1917-1918 Naval Programme. She was laid down on 19 August 1918 by J. Samuel White at Cowes, Isle of Wight, and launched on 16 April 1919. She was completed on 23 December 1919 and was commissioned into service the same day with the pennant number D66.

After entering service with the fleet in 1919, Wivern was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, serving with that flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet and Mediterranean Fleet before being decommissioned, transferred to the Reserve Fleet, and placed in reserve.

In 1939, Wivern was recommissioned as the fleet mobilised because of deteriorating diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany and was selected for assignment to the 16th Destroyer Flotilla based at Portsmouth in the event of war breaking out.

After the United Kingdom entered World War II on 3 September 1939, Wivern's assignment at Portsmouth was cancelled, and instead she was assigned to Western Approaches Command for convoy defence operations in the Western Approaches. On 5 September, she escorted Convoy GC 1 from the River Clyde in Scotland with the destroyers HMS Vanessa, Vivacious, and Wakeful. On 9 September she joined the destroyers HMS Walker and Winchelsea in escorting Convoy OB 2.

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