HMS Wanderer (D74)

HMS Wanderer in October 1942
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Wanderer
OrderedJanuary 1918
BuilderFairfield's of Glasgow
Laid down7 August 1918
Launched1 May 1919
Commissioned18 September 1919
Recommissioned1939
In service1919-1945
Out of service1945-1946
Reclassified1943 Long Range Escort
Motto
  • Vagantes numquam erramus
  • 'Wandering we never stray'
Honours &
awards
  • Atlantic (1939-45)
  • Norway 1940
  • Sicily 1943
  • Normandy 1944
  • Arctic 1944
  • English Channel 1944
FateSold to be broken up for scrap on 31 January 1946
BadgeGold Bee on a Blue Field
General characteristics
Class & typeAdmiralty modified W class destroyer
Displacement1,112 tons standard
Length300 feet (91 m) o/a, 312 feet (95 m) p/p
Beam29.6 feet (9.0 m)
Draught11.7 feet (3.6 m) under full load
Depth18.3 feet (5.6 m)
Propulsion
Speed
  • 1919: 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
  • 1943: 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph)
Range
  • 320-370 tons oil
  • 3,500 nmi at 15 kn
  • 900 nmi at 32 kn
Complement
  • 1919: 134
  • 1943: 193
Sensors &
processing systems
  • 1943 LRE conversion
  • Type 271 target indication radar
  • Type 291 air warning radar
Armament

HMS Wanderer (D74/I74) was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was the seventh RN ship to carry the name Wanderer. She was ordered in January 1918 to be built at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan in Glasgow, being launched in May 1919. She served through World War II where she was jointly credited with five kills on German U-boats, more than any other ship of her class. In December 1941 the community of Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire officially adopted her. In 1943 she was one of twenty one V&W class destroyers to be converted as Long Range Escorts. She was decommissioned after the war and sold for scrap in 1946.