HMS Wrangler (R48)

HMS Wrangler in June 1944
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Wrangler
Ordered:	3 December 1941
Builder:	Vickers Armstrong
Laid down:	23 September 1942
Launched:	29 September 1943
Commissioned:	14 July 1944
Converted	Type 15 frigate 1951 - 1952
Identification:	Pennant number R48/F157
Fate:	Sold to South Africa 1957
South Africa
Name:	SAS Vyrstaat
Identification:	F157
Fate:	Sunk as Target 1976
General characteristics
Class and type:	W-class destroyer
General characteristics
Class and type:	Type 15 frigate

HMS Wrangler was an W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II. She was later converted into a Type 15 frigate and subsequently sold to the South African Navy.

Postwar service

In January 1946 she was the chemical warfare training ship based at Devonport. From September 1946 until 1950 she was with the Rosyth local flotilla as a boys training ship. In June 1950 she was with the 4th Training Flotilla at Rosyth. Between 1951 and 1953 she was converted into a Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigate, with the new pennant number F157.^[1] On re-commissioning in 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.^[2]

Between 1953 and 1955 she served as part of the 5th Frigate Squadron in the Mediterranean. In 1954 Wrangler was involved in the search for wreckage of the BOAC de Havilland Comet airliner G-ALYP, that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea near the island of Elba. On 4 February 1955, she ran aground at Villefranche sur Mer, France; she was refloated on 6 February 1955 by French Navy and Italian Navy tugs.^[3]

South African Navy service

In 1956 she was refitted at Cardiff and sold to the South African Navy on 29 November 1956 as SAS Vrystaat, the pennant number remaining the same. Following service in the South African Navy she was sunk as a target in April 1976.

References

1. Critchley, Mike (1982). British Warships Since 1945: Part 3: Destroyers. Liskeard, UK: Maritime Books. p. 78. ISBN 0-9506323-9-2.
2. Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden
3. "Telgrams in Brief" The Times (London). Monday, 7 February 1955. (53159), col C-D, p. 6.

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.
• Raven, Alan; Roberts, John (1978). War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. London: Bivouac Books. ISBN 0-85680-010-4.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.