Name HMS Zenith Laid down 19 May 1942 Commissioned 22 December 1944 Launched 22 December 1944 Weight 1,710 tons Beam 11 m | Ordered 12 February 1942 Completed 22 December 1944 Out of service Sold to Egypt, 1955 Length 111 m Displacement 1.551 million kg | |
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HMS Zenith was a Z-class destroyer of the Royal Navy built as by William Denny and Brothers, Dunbarton. She was ordered as part of the 10th Emergency Flotilla, and was originally to have been named HMS Wessex. She spent her first ten years in Royal Navy service, before being sold to the Egyptian Navy, which operated her as El Fateh, where she remains as a training vessel.
Contents
Second World War
On commissioning and work up Zenith joined the Home Fleet, however defects required repair and she was allocated for service in the Far East. She took passage to the Far East via the Mediterranean, but the war ended before she saw any operational service.
Postwar Service
During 1946 Zenith was part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet. In 1947 she was placed into reserve at Chatham, where she remained until 1950. On 17 October 1950 she was towed to Palmers on the River Tyne for refit. She was then part of the Harwich reserve between 1951 and 1954. Her proposed conversion to a Type 15 frigate was cancelled and in May 1955 she was transferred Egypt along with sister ship Myngs.
Egyptian service
Zenith was sold to Egypt in 1955 and commissioned into the Egyptian Navy as El Fateh. She was refitted by John I. Thornycroft, Woolston and sailed for Egypt on 28 August 1956. She was modernized at White, Cowes between May 1963 and July 1964.
She was relegated to the role of a training vessel and remains extant today. Various attempts at preservation over the years have been made, but negotiations for the sale of the ship by the Egyptian Government have not been concluded as at 2014.