HMS Cavalier - History
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 4:03 pm
HMS Cavalier is a C Class Destroyer and was one of 96 emergency class destroyers built in World War 2.
She was launched at the Samuel White and Company shipyard at Cowes on the Isle of Wight on 7th April 1944 and was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 22nd November 1944. She was one of the first ships welded forward and aft, with the midships section rivetted for added strength. She served with the Home Fleet after commissioning and was despatched to the Far East in 1945 and served with the British Pacific Fleet, paying off into reserve in May 1946.
She was later modernised and brought back into service in 1957 and served with the 8th Destroyer Squadron at Singapore. She was decommissioned in 1972 and was laid up at Portsmouth. She was bought by the Cavalier Trust and moved to Southampton, then Brighton. She was earmarked to be central exhibit at a National Shipbuilding Exhibition on the River Tyne and was moved to Hebburn in 1987. The project failed to materialise as expected and, faced with mounting annual maintenance cost for her, she was sold by South Tyneside Council and was sold to Chatham Historic Dockyard in 1998, where she currently sits in No 2 dry dock.
She is open to visitors and further details about her can be found here:
http://thedockyard.co.uk/explore/three- ... -cavalier/
She was launched at the Samuel White and Company shipyard at Cowes on the Isle of Wight on 7th April 1944 and was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 22nd November 1944. She was one of the first ships welded forward and aft, with the midships section rivetted for added strength. She served with the Home Fleet after commissioning and was despatched to the Far East in 1945 and served with the British Pacific Fleet, paying off into reserve in May 1946.
She was later modernised and brought back into service in 1957 and served with the 8th Destroyer Squadron at Singapore. She was decommissioned in 1972 and was laid up at Portsmouth. She was bought by the Cavalier Trust and moved to Southampton, then Brighton. She was earmarked to be central exhibit at a National Shipbuilding Exhibition on the River Tyne and was moved to Hebburn in 1987. The project failed to materialise as expected and, faced with mounting annual maintenance cost for her, she was sold by South Tyneside Council and was sold to Chatham Historic Dockyard in 1998, where she currently sits in No 2 dry dock.
She is open to visitors and further details about her can be found here:
http://thedockyard.co.uk/explore/three- ... -cavalier/