Design and Construction
The N class destroyer had a displacement of 1,760 tons at standard load, and 2,353 tons at full load. Napier was 356 feet 6 inches (108.66 m) long overall and 229 feet 6 inches (69.95 m) long between perpendiculars, had a beam of 35 feet 8 inches (10.87 m), and a maximum draught of 16 feet 4 inches (4.98 m). Propulsion was provided by Admiralty 3-drum boilers connected to Parsons geared steam turbines, which provided 40,000 shaft horsepower to the ship's two propellers. Napier was capable of reaching 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). The ship's company consisted of 226 officers and sailors.
The ship's armament consisted of six 4.7-inch QF Mark XII guns in three twin mounts, a single 4-inch QF Mark V gun, a 2-pounder 4-barrel Pom Pom, four 0.5-inch machine guns, four 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns, four .303 Lewis machine guns, two Pentad dual torpedo launcher tube sets (with 8 torpedoes carried), two depth-charge throwers and one depth-charge chute (with 45 charges carried). The 4-inch gun was removed later in Napier's career.
Napier was the first of the eight-ship N class laid down under the War Emergency Programme when construction started at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company shipyard in Govan, Scotland on 26 July 1939. The destroyer was launched on 22 May 1940 by the wife of one of the company directors, and was commissioned into the RAN on 28 November 1940. Although commissioned as an Australian warship, Napier remained the property of the Royal Navy. The ship was named after Scottish Admiral Sir Charles Napier, with the ship's badge taken from the family coat of arms, and cost 403,960 pounds to build.
Read more about this topic: HMAS Napier (G97)
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