HMS Quality (G62)
HMS Quality (G62) on 13 May 1944
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Quality |
Builder | Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson's Limited |
Laid down | 10 October 1940 |
Launched | 6 October 1941 |
Commissioned | 7 September 1942 |
Decommissioned | 8 October 1945 |
Motto | Age Dum Agis (Latin: Do as You Do) |
Honours and awards |
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Fate | Transferred to RAN |
Australia | |
Name | HMAS Quality |
Acquired | 8 October 1945 |
Commissioned | 28 November 1945 |
Decommissioned | 25 January 1946 |
Fate | Sold for scrap |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Q-class destroyer |
Displacement |
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Length |
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Beam | 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m) |
Propulsion | 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers , Parsons Impulse turbines, 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) |
Speed | 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) |
Range | 4,680 nautical miles (8,670 km; 5,390 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Complement | 8 officers, 181 sailors |
Armament |
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HMS Quality (G62/D18) was a Q-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. Entering service in 1942, the destroyer served in several theatres of World War II. Following the war's conclusion, the ship was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), commissioning as HMAS Quality (G62/D262) in late 1945. Unlike her sister ships, which were refitted as anti-submarine frigates, Quality was not modified, decommissioned after only 59 days of service, and was sold for scrap in 1958.
Design and construction
Quality was one of eight Q-class destroyers constructed as a flotilla under the
Main armament consisted of four
Quality was
Operational history
World War II
During World War II, the destroyer operated in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean.[3] The destroyer was transferred to the British Pacific Fleet in 1945.[3]
On 25 July 1944 Quality took part in
Quality was awarded four
Transfer to RAN
On 8 October 1945, Quality became one of five Q-class ships transferred to the RAN on loan.[2][6] The transfer allowed the return of four N-class destroyers to the RN.[6] Quality was transferred on 8 October 1945, and commissioned into the RAN on 28 November.[2] The ship spent most of her short career in Australian waters, apart from visits to Manus Island and New Guinea.[3]
Decommissioning and fate
Quality paid off into reserve on 25 January 1946, 59 days after commissioning.[3] The destroyer was to be converted into an anti-submarine frigate: to facilitate this, Quality and her four sister ships were gifted to the RAN in May 1950.[6] Quality was designated as the last of the five ships to undergo the conversion.[7] While waiting for conversion, the destroyer underwent refits in 1948 and 1950, and had to be docked for repairs to her hull in 1954.[7] On 14 August 1956, one of the reserve fleet shipkeepers noticed that Quality was sitting lower in the water than normal.[7] It was discovered that the hull had become corroded at the waterline, with the ship taking on water.[7] Quality underwent an emergency dry docking that day at Garden Island, with the superstructure cut off to increase the ship's freeboard.[7]
The deterioration of the ship while waiting for modernisation, combined with post-World War II reductions in RAN personnel numbers, the increases in both time and cost for the other four Q-class conversions, and the need for the RAN to cut back spending in order to support the navy's new aircraft carriers, meant that the conversion of Quality was cancelled and the ship was marked for disposal.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 90
- ^ a b c "HMAS Quality". Sea Power Centre – Royal Australian Navy. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 91
- ^ "HMS Quality (G62) - War Diary and Royal Navy Service". hms-quality.info. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
- ^ "Media - HMS Quality". hms-quality.info. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
- ^ a b c Stevens (ed.) The Royal Australian Navy, p. 168
- ^ a b c d e f g Weaver, Q class Destroyers and Frigates of the Royal Australian Navy, p. 123
- ^ Stevens (ed.) The Royal Australian Navy, p. 169-170
References
- Cassells, Vic (2000). The Destroyers: their battles and their badges. East Roseville, NSW: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 46829686.
- Raven, Alan; Roberts, John (1978). War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. London: Bivouac Books. ISBN 0-85680-010-4.
- Stevens, David; Sears, Jason; Goldrick, James; Cooper, Alastair; Jones, Peter; Spurling, Kathryn (2001). Stevens, David (ed.). The Royal Australian Navy. The Australian Centenary History of Defence (vol III). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. OCLC 50418095.
- Weaver, Trevor (1994). Q class Destroyers and Frigates of the Royal Australian Navy. Garden Island, NSW: Naval History Society of Australia. OCLC 33162899.
- Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.