Construction and Design
Antelope was ordered on 6 March 1928, and was laid down at Hawthorn Leslie on Tyneside on 11 July 1928. The ship was launched on 27 July 1929 and commissioned on 20 March 1930.
She had a main gun armament of four 4.7 in (120 mm) guns on low angle (30 degree) mounts that were only suitable for anti-ship use, and an anti-aircraft armament of two 2 pounder (40 mm) "pom-poms". Eight 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes were carried on two quadruple mounts, with Mark V torpedoes carried. The initial anti-submarine equipment was limited, with no sonar carried and only six depth charges.
In 1941, one of the 4.7 in guns and the aft bank of torpedo tubes was removed, with a 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun being replacing the torpedo tubes and an enhanced anti-submarine armament, with 70 depth charges carried, and the ability to drop patterns of 10 charges. Radar was fitted, and the destroyer's close-in anti-aircraft outfit was supplemented by the addition of Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, with two added in 1941 and up to six eventually fitted. The 3 inch gun was removed by 1943, when High-frequency direction finding gear was fitted. A second 4.7 in gun was replaced in 1944 by two QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss guns.
Read more about this topic: HMS Antelope (H36)
Famous quotes containing the words construction and/or design:
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“Joe ... you remember I said you wouldn’t be cheated?... Nobody is really. Eventually all things work out. There’s a design in everything.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)