HMS Quantock (L58)

HMS Quantock c.1941 (IWM)
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Quantock
Ordered:	11 April 1939
Builder:	Scotts, Greenock
Laid down:	26 July 1939
Launched:	22 April 1940
Commissioned:	6 February 1941
Identification:	pennant number:L58
Fate:	Sold to Ecuadorian Navy
Badge:	On a Field Green ,in front of two antlers in saltire a bugle horn palewise Gold.
History
Ecuador
Name:	Presidente Alfaro
Acquired:	18 October 1954
Commissioned:	16 August 1955
Decommissioned:	1978
Identification:	DD1
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Class & type:	Type I Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,050 long tons (1,070 t) standard 1,430 long tons (1,450 t) full load
Length:	85.3 m (279 ft 10 in) o/a
Beam:	9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
Draught:	2.51 m (8 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shaft Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp
Speed:	27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h) 25.5 kn (29.3 mph; 47.2 km/h) full
Range:	3,600 nmi (6,700 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h)
Complement:	164
Armament:	6 × QF 4 in Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII 2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III 110 depth charges, 2 throwers, 3 racks

HMS Quantock was a Type I Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which served in World War II. She was sold to Ecuador in 1954 where she served as Presidente Alfaro.

History in the Royal Navy

Quantock was ordered on 11 April 1939 under the 1939 War Emergency Build Programme. She was laid down as Job No. J112.^[1] She was commissioned in February 1941. She was adopted by the civil community of Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire as part of Warship Week in 1942.

She earned battle honours during the Second World War for North Sea 1941-1945, Atlantic 1943, Sicily 1943, Salerno 1943 and Adriatic 1944.

Following the war she was used as an air target training ship, before being transferred to the Reserve Fleet. She remained there until 1954 when she was sold to Ecuador, along with another Hunt-Class Destroyer Meynell.^[2]

History in the Ecuadorian Navy

Following sale Quantock underwent a refit by J. Samuel White and Company, on the Isle of Wight, which was completed in 1955.

She was commissioned as Presidente Alfaro in August 1955 when she was taken over by the Ecuadorian Navy at Portsmouth Dockyard.^[3]

She served until 1978, when she was struck from the active list, before being sold for scrapping.

References

2. Critchley, Mike, "British Warships Since 1945: Part 3: Destroyers", Maritime Books: Liskeard, UK, 1982. ISBN 0-9506323-9-2, page 28
3. Blackman, Raymond V B, Jane's Fighting Ships 1963-4, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd, London, p123

Publications

Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.