HMS Keppel

H.M.S. Keppel

(SeaVee SV-533b)

Class: Shakespeare - 3 destroyer leaderss of 1916-17
Displacement: 1,480 tons standard / 2,009 tons deep load
Dimensions: 329 (oa) x 31.5 x 12.5 ft.
Machinery: Geared turbines: 2 screws, 40,000shp = 36 knots
Armament: 2-4.7in (2x1), 1-12pdr AA, 2-2pdr AA (2x1), 2-20mm AA (2x1); 6-21in (2x3) TT
ASW: Hedgehog, DC
Complement: 164

Notes: One of seven destroyer leaders ordered from Thornycroft, but two were cancelled and only two, including Shakespeare, were completed during World War I. Three were completed postwar and remained in service at the outbreak of World War II, with Broke, ex-Rooke, being completed at Pembroke Dockyard.
After commissioning, Keppel served on various stations in the Mediterranean and Far East, before going into reserve in 1937. She was recommissioned in Aug 1939 and stationed at Gibraltar. In Jun 1940 she assisted in the evacuation of forces from France, and was with the British fleet that attacked the French Fleet at Mers el Kebir on 3 Jul 1940. She was then assigned to Atlantic convoy duties in 1941 eventually serving on more than 30 Atlantic convoys and a dozen Gibraltar convoys. Keppel was converted to a long-range escort configuration as shown here in 1942. In Jul 1942 she was leader of the close escort for the ill-fated convoy PQ-17, one of 15 convoys to and from Russia that she was involved in. Keppel was credited with the destruction (alone or in company with others) of five U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic: U-229 on 22 Sep 1943, U-713 on 24 Feb 1944, U-360 on 2 Apr 1944, U-354 on 24 Aug 1944, and U-394 on 2 Sep 1944. She was decommissioned in Jul 1945 and sold for scrapping.