USS Welles (DD-257) - As HMS Cameron

As HMS Cameron

Simultaneously, the destroyer was renamed HMS Cameron (I05) and placed under the command of Lt. Cmdr. P. G. Merriman, Royal Navy. Initially, the warship suffered problems with a faulty generator which delayed her sailing for the British Isles. After finally getting underway for England, the destroyer made port at Plymouth on 13 November, after a stop-over at Belfast, Northern Ireland. Cameron shifted to Portsmouth three days later, and was slated to receive her first major overhaul since coming under the White Ensign. However, she was never to finish this as, on 5 December 1940, Luftwaffe bombers struck Portsmouth while Cameron lay defenseless in drydock no. 8. A high explosive bomb severely damaged the ship, capsizing her.

Judged unsuitable for return to active sea service, Cameron was eventually refloated on 23 February 1941 and allocated for use as a hulk. United States Navy experts consequently subjected the ship to close scrutiny to derive damage control measures which could be applicable to ships of her type still in service with the Navy. As such, she presented them with what John Alden, in his book, Flush Decks and Four Pipes, termed the most extreme case of hull damage seen by Americans until Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375) were blasted by Japanese bombs at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

Admiralty records indicate that Cameron fulfilled a useful purpose. The Admiralty Committee on Shock in Ships conducted shock tests on the hulk between July 1942 and September 1943. "Paid off" on 5 October 1943, Cameron remained in dockyard hands at Portsmouth until towed to Falmouth in November 1944, where she was subsequently broken up for scrap.