HMS Wolsey
HMS Wolsey during World War II.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Class and type: | Admiralty W-class destroyer |
| Name: | HMS Wolsey |
| Ordered: | 9 December 1916 |
| Builder: | John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, Hampshire, England |
| Laid down: | 28 March 1917 |
| Launched: | 16 March 1918 |
| Completed: | 14 May 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 14 May 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 1930s |
| Identification: |
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| Motto: | Quo majores ducunt: 'Where our forefathers lead we follow' |
| Recommissioned: | January 1940 |
| Decommissioned: | summer 1945 |
| Motto: | To the last penny, 'tis the King's |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Sold 4 March 1947 for scrapping |
| Badge: | A blue leopard's face on a white field |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,120 tons standard |
| Length: | 300 ft (91 m) o/a, 312 ft (95 m) p/p |
| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) |
| Draught: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis steam turbines, 2 shafts, 30,000 shp |
| Speed: | 36-knot (67 km/h) |
| Range: | 320–370 tons oil, 3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h), 900 nmi (1,700 km) at 32 knots (59 km/h) |
| Complement: | 134 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Wolsey (D98) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Nanking Incident, and in World War II.
Wolsey, the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered on 9 December 1916 as part of the 10th Order of the 1916–1917 Naval Programme and was laid down by John I. Thornycroft & Company at Woolston, Hampshire, England, on 28 March 1917. Launched on 16 March 1918, she was completed on 14 May 1918 and commissioned the same day. Her original pennant number became G40 in June 1918; it was changed to D98 during the interwar period.
Upon completion, Wolsey was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, in which she served for the rest of World War I.
After the conclusion of World War I, Wolsey served in the Atlantic Fleet. In the late 1920s, she operated on the China Station. After the British river steamer SS Kutwo collided with and sank a Chinese troop-carrying launch on the Yangtze River and Chinese authorities threatened to seize her at Nanking in early March 1927, Wolsey arrived on the scene and came alongside Kutwo to repel by force any Chinese attempt to board her, and Wolsey's sailors also boarded a British hulk nearby and forced off Chinese students who had boarded it to stage a demonstration; the light cruiser HMS Emerald (D66) soon joined Wolsey at Nanking as a reinforcement. During the Nanking Incident, Wolsey steamed at full speed from Wuhu to Nanking on 24 March 1927 to reinforce Emerald and the United States Navy destroyers USS Noa (DD-343) and USS William B. Preston (DD-344) and patrol yacht USS Isabel (PY-10) as they confronted Chinese troops threatening foreigners ashore; she arrived as the other ships opened fire on Chinese positions and, without a target designation for her larger guns, used her machine guns against Chinese snipers which had harassed the other ships and their boats all day. She remained at Nanking, prepared for further action, until all foreign refugees were safely aboard the ships on the evening of 25 March 1927.
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