Class and type Captain class frigate Laid down 12 February 1942 Construction started 12 February 1942 Length 88 m Builder Philadelphia | Name HMS Drury Commissioned 12 April 1943 Launched 24 July 1942 Draft 2.7 m | |
Out of service Returned to United States Navy on 20 August 1945 Renamed Planned as HMS Cockburn
Renamed HMS Drury before launching | ||
HMS Drury was a Captain class frigate of the Evarts-class of destroyer escort, originally commissioned to be built for the United States Navy. Before she was finished in 1942, she was transferred to the Royal Navy under the terms of Lend-Lease, and saw service during the Second World War. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named Drury, after Captain Thomas Drury, commander of HMS Alfred in the West Indies in 1795.
Contents
Wartime career
She was originally to have been named HMS Cockburn, but the name was changed to HMS Drury prior to her launch on 24 July 1942 by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 12 April 1943 and spent her wartime career on anti-submarine patrols and as a convoy escort. On 23 November 1943 she and the frigates HMS Bazely and HMS Blackwood sank the German submarine U-648 north-east of the Azores. On 21 April 1945 Drury, Bazely and HMS Bentinck sank U-636 west of Ireland.
Post-War return to the United States
Drury was transferred back to the US Navy on 20 August 1945 at Chatham, England. She was commissioned the same day, Lieutenant W. R. Herrick, Jr., USNR, in command. She departed Chatham on 28 August, joined Task Group 21.3 off Dover, and the following day sailed for the States. Drury arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 8 September and remained there at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she was decommissioned on 22 October 1945. She was scrapped in June 1946.