HMS Oribi (G66)

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Oribi
Ordered: 3 September 1939
Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, Scotland
Laid down: 15 January 1940
Launched: 14 January 1941
Commissioned: 5 July 1941
Decommissioned: 1 January 1946
Fate: Sold to Turkey[1]
Turkey
Name: Gayret
Acquired: 1946
Fate: Scrapped 1965
General characteristics
Class and type: O-class destroyer
Displacement: 1,540 long tons (1,560 t)
Length: 345 ft (105 m) o/a
Beam: 35 ft (11 m)
Draught: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:
  • 2 × Parson geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (29,828 kW)
  • 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
  • 2 shafts
Speed: 37 knots (43 mph; 69 km/h)
Range: 3,850 nmi (7,130 km) at 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Complement: 175
Armament:

HMS Oribi (G66) was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Following the style of her sister ships she was named with a word beginning with O. Originally she was to have been christened HMS Observer, but for unknown reasons she was christened HMS Oribi, after the oribi, a South African antelope.

Second World War service

Oribi was one of the destroyers that supported the March 1941 Lofoten Island Commando raid ("Operation Claymore"), by shelling the islands and attacking German shipping in the sheltered anchorage. She also assisted to bring Norwegian nationals home after the raid to escape the German occupation.

She saw extensive action during the Arctic and North Atlantic convoys of the Second World War. These included Convoy ONS 5 in May 1943, regarded as the turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Postwar service

Oribi was transferred to the Turkish Navy in 1946 and renamed Gayret, to replace a previous ship of that name requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Second World War and lost during hostilities. She received the new pennant number D15 and was used as a headquarters ship.[2]

Notes

  1. Ex-British O class destroyers at battleships-cruisers.co.uk
  2. Blackman, Raymond V B, Jane's Fighting Ships 1963-4, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd, London, p249

References



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