HMAS Stuart (D00)

HMAS Stuart
History
United Kingdom
Namesake	House of Stuart
Builder	Hawthorn Leslie and Company
Laid down	18 October 1917
Launched	22 August 1918
Commissioned	21 December 1918
Decommissioned	May 1933
Motto	"By Honour Flourish"
Fate	Transferred to RAN
Australia
Commissioned	11 October 1933
Decommissioned	27 April 1946
Honours and awards	Battle honours: Mediterranean 1940 Calabria 1940 Libya 1940–41 Matapan 1941 Greece 1941 Crete 1941 Pacific 1942–43 New Guinea 1942–44
Fate	Sold for scrap
General characteristics
Class and type	Admiralty-type (or Scott-class) destroyer leader
Displacement	1,530 tons standard 2,053 tons full load
Length	332 ft 7.5 in (101.384 m) length overall 320 ft (98 m) between perpendiculars
Beam	31 ft 9.375 in (9.68693 m)
Draught	11 ft 4 in (3.45 m) at full load
Propulsion	4 × Yarrow boilers, 2 × Brown-Curtis turbines, 43,000 shp (32,000 kW), 2 shafts
Speed	34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) as designed
Range	3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	183 officers and sailors in 1918 11 officers and 156 sailors in 1936
Armament	In 1933: 5 × BL 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns 1 × QF 3-inch (76 mm) AA gun 2 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) AA guns (pom-poms) 5 × .303 inch machine guns 6 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (two triple mountings) 2 × depth charge throwers 4 × depth charge chutes See "Design and construction" section for changes during World War II

HMAS Stuart (formerly HMS Stuart) was a British Scott-class flotilla leader. The ship was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company for the Royal Navy during World War I, and entered service at the end of 1918. The majority of the destroyer's British service was performed in the Mediterranean, and in 1933 she was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy. Although placed in reserve in 1938, Stuart was reactivated at the start of World War II to lead the Australian destroyer force, nicknamed the "Scrap Iron Flotilla" by German propagandists.

The flotilla operated in the Mediterranean, with Stuart participating in the Western Desert Campaign and the battles of Calabria and Cape Matapan, defeating the Italian submarine Gondar, evacuating Allied troops from Greece and Crete, and serving with the Tobruk Ferry Service. The destroyer returned to Australia for repairs and refit in late 1941, and spent most of 1942 and 1943 in Australian waters. Stuart was modified into a stores and troop transport in early 1944, and operated in this role around Australia and New Guinea until early 1946. Stuart was placed in reserve in 1946, and was sold for ship breaking in early 1947.