Name HMS Cotton Commissioned 8 November 1943 Struck 3 January 1946 Construction started 2 June 1943 Draft 2.7 m | Laid down 2 June 1943 Decommissioned 5 November 1945 Honours and
awards Atlantic, 1939-1945 Launched 21 August 1943 Builder Hingham | |
HMS Cotton (K510) was a Captain-class frigate of the British Royal Navy that served in World War II. The ship was laid down as a Buckley-class destroyer escort at the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard at Hingham, Massachusetts on 2 June 1943, with the hull number DE-81, and launched on 21 August 1943. The ship was transferred to the UK under Lend-Lease on 8 November 1943, and named after Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, an officer who served in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Service history
Cotton served as a convoy escort from May to December 1944, operating mostly between Liverpool and Gibraltar. In 1945 she escorted three convoys to the United States, and was part of Russian Convoy JW 66 in April 1945, during which she participated in the sinking of U-286, with Loch Insh and Anguilla on 29 April – the last naval gun battle of the war with Germany.
Cotton was returned to the U.S. Navy on 5 November 1945, and struck from the Navy List on 3 January 1946, and subsequently sold for scrapping that year.