Service
Japarua was ordered by Brazil on 6 December 1937 from Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness. The ship was laid down on 3 June 1938 and she was purchased by the British on 5 September 1939 after the beginning of World War II. Renamed HMS Hurricane, the ship was launched on 29 September and commissioned on 21 June 1940. She was assigned to the 9th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet upon commissioning until new construction replaced the losses suffered over the previous few months. Hurricane then began escorting convoys and conducting anti-submarine patrols until May 1941. On 17 September, the ship rescued survivors of the SS City of Benares, a small passenger ship evacuating 90 children from the United Kingdom to Canada, and the freighter SS Marina. She rescued 451 survivors from the passenger-cargo liner SS City of Nagpur and landed them at Greenock, Scotland on 1 May 1941.
Hurricane was bombed and sunk in a German air raid on Liverpool during the night of 7/8 May 1941. She was struck by a bomb that passed through the hull and detonated underneath her. The explosion blew a large hole in her bottom and flooded her engine room and oil tanks. The ship's structure was badly damaged enough that her stern began to sag downwards and Hurricane was moved to Bidston Dock lest she sink and block traffic in the harbour. No one was killed in the attack, although a few crewmen received minor injuries.
The ship was repaired and returned to service in January 1942 as flotilla leader of Escort Group B1 assigned to the Mid-Ocean Escort Force. Hurricane remained as the leader for the next two years. Whilst escorting Convoy OS 62/KMS 36, the ship was hit by an acoustic T5 torpedo fired by U-415 on the evening of 24 December 1943. The torpedo homed in on the ship's propeller noises and blew off 30 feet (9.1 m) of her stern. The explosion killed three and wounded nine of her crew, and rendered her unable to move. The following morning, she was scuttled by the destroyer Watchman at 45°10′N 22°05′W / 45.167°N 22.083°W / 45.167; -22.083.
Read more about this topic: HMS Hurricane (H06)
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community,—these are the most vital things education must try to produce.”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)
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—William Gibson (b. 1948)