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HMS Dart (K21)

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HMS Dart (K21) 1943.jpg
History
United Kingdom
NameDart
NamesakeRiver Dart
BuilderBlyth Shipbuilding & Drydock, Blyth
Laid down8 September 1941[1]
Launched10 October 1942
Commissioned13 May 1943
FateScrapped 1957
General characteristics
Class and typeRiver-class frigate
Displacement
  • 1,370 long tons (1,390 t)
  • 1,830 long tons (1,860 t) (deep load)
Length
  • 283 ft (86.26 m) p/p
  • 301.25 ft (91.82 m)o/a
Beam36.5 ft (11.13 m)
Draught9 ft (2.74 m); 13 ft (3.96 m) (deep load)
Propulsion2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp (4,100 kW)
Speed20 knots (37.0 km/h)
Range440 long tons (450 t; 490 short tons) oil fuel; 7,200 nautical miles (13,334 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)
Complement107
Armament
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Dart.

HMS Dart (K21) was a River-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Dart was built to the RN's specifications as a Group I River-class frigate.

The River class was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts and were named for rivers in the United Kingdom. The ships were designed by naval engineer William Reed, of Smith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees, to have the endurance and anti-submarine capabilities of the Black Swan-class sloops, while being quick and cheap to build in civil dockyards using the machinery (e.g. reciprocating steam engines instead of turbines) and construction techniques pioneered in the building of the Flower-class corvettes. Its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with the Royal Navy at the time, including the Flower class.

She sailed from Blyth, Northumberland in May 1943 for Tobermory, to work-up before being sent to join a group on ocean escort of convoys. After a few weeks working-up the ship and the crew, Admiral Stephenson would then personally inspect each escort and put the Captain and crew through a stiff test before releasing them for operational service.[2] Anti-submarine exercises were conducted on 19 June.

Discover more about HMS Dart (K21) related topics

River-class frigate

River-class frigate

The River class was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. The majority served with the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), with some serving in the other Allied navies: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Free French Naval Forces, the Royal Netherlands Navy and, post-war, the South African Navy.

Frigate

Frigate

A frigate is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.

Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.

Ship class

Ship class

A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, USS Carl Vinson is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class.

Convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.

Smith's Dock Company

Smith's Dock Company

Smith's Dock Company, Limited, often referred to simply as Smith's Dock, was a British shipbuilding company.

Black Swan-class sloop

Black Swan-class sloop

The Black Swan class and Modified Black Swan class were two classes of sloop of the Royal Navy and Royal Indian Navy. Twelve Black Swans were launched between 1939 and 1943, including four for the Royal Indian Navy; twenty-five Modified Black Swans were launched between 1942 and 1945, including two for the Royal Indian Navy; several other ships were cancelled.

Sloop-of-war

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions.

Flower-class corvette

Flower-class corvette

The Flower-class corvette was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy ships of this class were named after flowers.

Corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war.

Blyth, Northumberland

Blyth, Northumberland

Blyth is a town and civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth and is approximately 13 miles (21 km) northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 37,339 in the 2011 Census.

Gilbert Stephenson

Gilbert Stephenson

Vice Admiral Sir Gilbert Owen Stephenson, was a senior officer in the Royal Navy, a pioneer of anti-submarine techniques in the First World War, and most famous as an important naval training commandant during the Second World War.

Service history

On 25 June Dart sailed from the Firth of Clyde escorting a mixed convoy of small RN ships to the Mediterranean Station.[3]

Once on station Cdr. Treasure Jones formed and took command of Escort Group 49 as the group's Senior Officer – Escort (SOE). It was one of seven such British naval groups which were to escort convoys through the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Port Said and vice versa, using Gibraltar and Alexandria as its bases.[4] The Germans had been chased out of Africa; the Allies had landed in Sicily and were fighting their way up Italy at this time. Previous to this it had been impossible to take convoys through the Mediterranean.

Escort Group 49
Name Pennant Class
HMS Dart K21 River-class frigate
HMS Primula K14 Flower-class corvette
HMS Gloxinia K22 Flower-class corvette
HMS Rye J76 Bangor-class minesweeper
HMS Rosario J219 Algerine-class minesweeper
HMS Sharpshooter N68 Halcyon-class minesweeper

As described by the Captain :

This was a comparatively peaceful mission compared to the Battle of the Atlantic, which was at its height in 1943 and 1944. It was almost like running a slow train. We would pick up our eastbound convoy just west of the Straits of Gibraltar, drop some off at Gibraltar and pick some up from there. Then, on passing Oran we would drop off ships for there and others would join us. And so on, it went at Algiers and the small ports on the north coast of Algeria, where supplies were unloaded for the armies. Then Tunis, Malta, Tobruk, Alexandria and finally Port Said, followed, of course, by the same westbound.
During this time we met up with the occasional submarine; it was mostly Italian submarines that operated here and they were rather ineffectual. Our most dangerous spot was off the African coast, between Oran and Algiers. Here we were often attacked by German aircraft based in the South of France; these aircraft usually attacked with torpedoes, but they had little success and lost many aircraft. Another spot where we sometimes met a few enemy aircraft was between Malta and Tobruk, on the African coast; these aircraft came from Crete and let go a stick of bombs from a height clear of our anti-aircraft guns.[5]

HMS Dart convoys

  • Convoy UGS.11 (Jun 1943: Hampton Roads - Port Said.)
  • Convoy KMS.19G (Jun 1943: Clyde - Passed Gibraltar)
  • Convoy GUS.10X (Jul 1943: Tripoli, Libya - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy KMS.29 (Oct 1943: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy GUS.21 (Nov 1943: Port Said - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy UGS.23 (Nov 1943: Hampton Roads - Port Said)
  • Convoy GUS.24 (Dec 1943: Port Said - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy KMS.35 (Dec 1943: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy MKS.37 (Jan 1944: Port Said - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy MKS.37G (Jan 1944: Gibraltar - Rendezvous with SL.146)
  • Convoy KMS.39 (Jan 1944: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy GUS.31 (Feb 1944: Port Said - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy UGS.33 (Feb 1944: Hampton Roads - Port Said)
  • Convoy MKS.44 (Mar 1944: Port Said - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy KMS.43 (Mar 1944: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy GUS.38 (Apr 1944: Port Said - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy UGS.39 (Apr 1944: Hampton Roads - Port Said)
  • Convoy KMS.46 (Apr 1944: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy MKS.50 (May 1944: Port Said - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy KMF.31 (May 1944: Clyde - Port Said)
  • Convoy KMS.52 (Jun 1944: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy MKS.56 (Jul 1944: Port Said - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy KMS.58 (Aug 1944: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy GUS.50 (Aug 1944: Port Said - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy UGS.51 (Aug 1944: Hampton Roads - Port Said)
  • Convoy MKS.62 (Sep 1944: Port Said - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy KMS.64 (Oct 1944: Gibraltar - Port Said)
  • Convoy GUS.56 (Oct 1944: Port Said - Hampton Roads)
  • Convoy KMS.69G (Nov 1944: Ex OS95/ KMS69 - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy KMS.69 (Nov 1944: Gibraltar - Dispersed 1800Z Off Malta)
  • Convoy MKF.36A (Dec 1944: Gibraltar - Liverpool)
  • Convoy KMF.41 (Mar 1945: Clyde - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy MKF.41 (Mar 1945: Gibraltar - Liverpool)
  • Convoy KMF.42 (Mar 1945: Clyde - Gibraltar)
  • Convoy MKF.43 (Apr 1945: Gibraltar - Liverpool)

Towards the end of 1944, things were so peaceful that convoys were discontinued and the escort force was disbanded.[6] Dart was re-fitted at Malta and then, in April 1945, returned to Britain for the final phase of the U-boat War.[7]

Dart was then attached to a Senior Group supporting shipping in the Irish Sea as U-boats had developed the snorkel and were attacking shipping in coastal waters around the Irish Sea. They were escorting a convoy between Ireland and the Pembrokeshire shore of Wales the night that hostilities were to cease at midnight 8 May 1945. The next two days Dart was detailed to remain in the area and escort any surrendering U-boats to harbour; two did surface and surrendered.

Discover more about Service history related topics

Firth of Clyde

Firth of Clyde

The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles. The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula, which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island – the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location at the entrance to the middle and upper Clyde, Bute played a vital naval military role during World War II.

John Treasure Jones

John Treasure Jones

Captain John Treasure Jones was a British naval officer who became a well-known media figure in the mid-1960s following his appointment as the last master of the Cunard liner, RMS Queen Mary. He has been described as one of the 20th century's most distinguished mariners, in war and in peacetime. His forebears were men of the sea, who had captained sailing ships, and he elected to follow in their tradition.

Allied invasion of Sicily

Allied invasion of Sicily

The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as the Battle of Sicily and Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers. It began with a large amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign, and initiated the Italian campaign.

Bangor-class minesweeper

Bangor-class minesweeper

The Bangor-class minesweepers were a class of warships operated by the Royal Navy (RN), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), and Royal Indian Navy (RIN) during the Second World War.

Algerine-class minesweeper

Algerine-class minesweeper

The Algerine-class minesweeper was a large group of minesweepers built for the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War. 110 ships of the class were launched between 1942 and 1944.

Halcyon-class minesweeper

Halcyon-class minesweeper

The Halcyon class was a class of 21 oil-fired minesweepers built for the British Royal Navy between 1933 and 1939. They were given traditional small ship names used historically by the Royal Navy and served during World War II.

Oran

Oran

Oran is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural importance. It is 432 km (268 mi) west-south-west from Algiers. The total population of the city was 803,329 in 2008, while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000 making it the second-largest city in Algeria.

Algiers

Algiers

Algiers is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 census was 2,988,145 and in 2020 was estimated to be around 4,500,000. Algiers is in the north-central part of Algeria.

Algeria

Algeria

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in North Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It is considered part of the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has a semi-arid geography, with most of the population living in the fertile north and the Sahara dominating the geography of the south. Algeria covers an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), making it the world's tenth largest nation by area, and the largest nation in Africa, being more than 200 times as large as the smallest country in the continent, The Gambia. With a population of 44 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa, and the 32nd-most populous country in the world. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.

Malta

Malta

Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is part of Southern Europe. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily (Italy), 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. The official languages are Maltese and English, and 66% of the current Maltese population is at least conversational in the Italian language.

Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria grew rapidly and became a major centre of Hellenic civilisation, eventually replacing Memphis, in present-day Greater Cairo, as Egypt's capital. During the Hellenistic period, it was home to the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which ranked among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the storied Library of Alexandria. Today, the library is reincarnated in the disc-shaped, ultramodern Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Its 15th-century seafront Qaitbay Citadel is now a museum. Called the "Bride of the Mediterranean" by locals, Alexandria is a popular tourist destination and an important industrial centre due to its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.

Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey, North Wales, is the largest island in the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man. The term Manx Sea may occasionally be encountered.

Fate

Sold to be broken up for scrap in November 1956. Scrapped in 1957.[1]

Source: "HMS Dart (K21)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 13th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dart_(K21).

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Further Reading

HMS Activity (D94)

MS Dunnottar Castle

Mediterranean U-boat campaign of World War II

Banff-class sloop

UG convoys

SS Mparmpa Petros

HMS Tortola (K595)

SS Fort Stikine

Gibraltar convoys of World War II

HMS Delphinium (K77)

SS Stratheden
External links
  • Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMS Dart". Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  • Mason RN, Lt Cdr Geoffrey B. "Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2". naval-history.net.
  • Kindell, Don. "World War 2 at Sea - Convoy Escort Movements of Royal and Dominion Navy Vessels". naval-history.net.
  • Hague, Arnold. "Arnold Hague Convoy Database". convoyweb.org.uk.
Sources
  • Elliott, Peter (1977). Allied Escort Ships of World War II. ISBN 0-356-08401-9.
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
  • Treasure Jones, John (2008). Tramp to Queen. ISBN 978-0-7524-4625-7.
References
  1. ^ a b "HMS Dart (K 21) Frigate of the River class". Allie warships. uboat.net. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  2. ^ "The Terror of Tobermory".
  3. ^ Convoy KMS.19G with escorts Bluebell, Camellia, Clare, Dart, Dianella, Fishguard and Lotus.
  4. ^ 37 Escort Group, 40 EG, 47 EG, 48 EG, 49 EG, 50 EG and 51 EG
  5. ^ Tramp to Queen pp. 83–84
  6. ^ "Mentioned in Dispatches for 49th Escort Group". The London Gazette (Supplement). No. 37119. 14 June 1945. p. 2973.
  7. ^ Convoy MKF.43 departed Gibraltar on 29 April 1945 with escorts Dart, Evenlode, Loch Katrine, Loch Quoich and Ness.
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