HMS Hesperus (H57)
HMS Hesperus (H57) was an
H-class destroyer of the
Royal Navy.
She was originally laid down as
Juruena for the
Brazilian Navy by
John I. Thornycroft and Company at
Woolston in
Southampton on
6 July 1938, launched on
1 August 1939, purchased in September 1939 and named
Hearty. Commissioned on
22 January 1940,
Hearty was renamed
Hesperus on
27 February, after the
Hesperus of mythology.
After serving briefly with the 9th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet,
Hesperus was attached to
Western Approaches Command for most of the war.
On
25 October 1941,
Hesperus and the destroyers
HMS Electra and
HMS Express escorted the battleship
HMS Prince of Wales for the first part of her journey to the Far East. The destroyers refuelled from the
Prince of Wales south of
Ireland. Two days later the destroyer, HMS
Legion was detached from a convoy to cover the
Prince of Wales with
Hesperus while
Electra and
Express refuelled from a tanker in
Ponta del Garda in the
Azores. After
Electra and
Express returned the following day,
Hesperus and
Legion departed for
Gibraltar.
Hesperus attacked and sank the enemy
German submarines
U-208 while in company with the destroyer
HMS Harvester in the Atlantic west of Gibraltar on
7 December 1941,
U-93 in the North Atlantic on
15 January 1942,
U-191 in the North Atlantic south-east of
Cape Farewell in
Greenland on
23 April 1943 and
U-186 in the Atlantic north of the Azores on
12 May 1943.
Hesperus was sold for scrap on
26 November 1946 and broken up at
Grangemouth.
* English, John.
Amazon to Ivanhoe - British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s.
* March, Edgar J.
British Destroyers, 1892-1953.
* Macintryre, Donald.
U-boat Killer.
