Dates: 1932 - 1940
1794 - 1839
HMS Diana, the second built in the Artois class was designed by Sir John Henslow. She was built by Randall & Brent of Rotherhithe, one of the largest merchant builders in the country. After eleven months building the hull, Diana was launched on the 3rd of March 1794.
She was then towed to the Royal Dockyard at Deptford where she was fitted out. This included masts, rigging, anchors, coppering of her bottom, ordnance and stores.
On the 12th of June 1794 Diana was ready to receive her full crew and spent the next 6 1/2 weeks working up at the Nore. The total cost of building and fitting out the Diana was £23,000. Diana had a very long and active career in which most of her time was spent in patrol, convoy and blockade duties.
The highlight of her career was in August 1795 when on patrol duty accompanied by her sister ship Seahorse and the frigate Unicorn, they captured the Dutch East Indiaman Cromhout, another merchant ship and her escort. From the Cromhout alone the ship shared nearly £47,000 prize money.
On the 30th of May 1814 Britain and France signed a peace treaty. On the 7th of March 1815 after a large repair and re-coppering Diana was sold to the Dutch Navy for £36,796.
On the 27th August 1816 Diana was one of 6 Frigates in the Dutch squadron that combined with the British fleet under Sir Edward Pellow (Lord Exmouth), himself a distinguished Frigate captain, and took part in the famous bombardment of Algiers.
On the 16th of January 1839, after an incredible 45 year service, Diana was accidentally destroyed by fire in dry-dock at Willemsoord.
In June 1796 she had her first refit where she was given solid quarter deck bulwarks, carronades to replace the 9lb carriage guns and a dolphin striker on the bowsprit.
Diana measured 173ft from figurehead to stern, her breadth was 39ft 3 1/2 and was almost 1000 tons burthen. Main armament was twenty eight 18lb carriage guns on the gun deck, with secondary armament consisting of ten 9lb guns on the top deck along with eight 32lb carronades.
There is no doubt that this configuration constantly changed throughout her career and at the end of her time in the British Navy she had fourteen carronades on her top deck.
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HMS Diana was a D class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She served briefly in the Second World War, operating in Home Waters and in the North Sea. She was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940 and renamed HMCS Margaree. She served for just over a month with the Canadians before being sunk in a collision with a merchant vessel she was escorting.
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1952 - 1973
HMS Diana was one of the Daring Class of destroyers planned during the Second World War by the Royal Navy. The design therefore reflected developments of the Pacific campaign, including long range and the ability to efficiently Replenish At Sea (RAS).
Statistics
Size
Dianas standard displacement was 3,610 tons. Length and beam of the ship are 390 feet (120 m) and 43 feet (13 m) respectively, she was capable of steaming at over 30 knots (56 km/h). The normal peacetime complement of HMS Diana was 297 officers and men.
Launch
The ship was built at Clydebank, Glasgow, by Yarrow and Co. Ltd. (Yard No 1846 ), laid down 3 April 1947 and launched Thursday 8 May 1952 by Lady McGrigor, wife of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Rhoderick McGrigor, and first commissioned 29 March 1954. Originally the name was to be Druid but this changed to Diana during building.
At the time Diana was considered a large destroyer, being nearly as big as a pre-war light cruiser. The Daring-class was a logical outcome of the Pacific War, where the ability to stay at sea for long periods was of prime importance.
Armament
The main armament consisted of six 4.5-inch (110 mm) dual purpose guns in three totally enclosed turrets, two forward, one aft. At the time of building the control system for the guns was the most advanced in the Royal Navy, being completely radar controlled. The guns were considered, at the time, highly accurate with a high rate of fire.
In summary her armament was: (1960)
Six 4.5 guns
Two 40 mm Bofors Guns
Five Torpedo Tubes
One Triple Anti-Submarine Mortar (Squid).
Electrical Supply
The ships electrical power was produced by two turbine generators and three diesel generators. The current used was 440 volts, 60 cycle Alternating Current (AC) power.
Interestingly, of the eight Darings, four ships were designed to operate on Direct Current (DC) for their electrical supply and four to operate on AC. The object was a practical test to determine which form of electrical supply was the most practical. Diana was an AC ship, as were all Royal Navy ships following this test.
Propulsion
Engines by Parsons
Propulsion: Geared turbine. 2 shaft
Name, Goddess and Crest
This Diana of ours is a very demanding person, goddesses tend to be that way Captain GJ Kirkby, DSC **, Royal Navy, Captain, HMS Diana 1961. The ships Commission book of 1961 describes Diana (the goddess) has having a distinctly complex personality. Apart from being the huntress, by the light of the sun she was pure and chaste; by the light of the moon, however, she became abandoned and dark.
Career
Diana saw action during the Suez Crisis, when on 31 October 1956, she torpedoed and sank the Egyptian frigate Domiat, which was engaged in a one sided gun duel with the cruiser HMS Newfoundland in the Red Sea.
South Pacific atomic tests controversy
In 1956 the Diana was ordered into the radioactive fallout zone of a nuclear weapon test near the Monte Bello Islands in the South Pacific. The aim of the order, given by British defence officials, was to discover the effects of atomic fallout, both on the ship itself and upon its 308-strong crew. Since the exposure, around two-thirds of the crew have died, and survivors attest that a variety of fallout-related diseases are responsible. The ships then-captain, John Gower, who died in 2007 aged 95, wrote after sailing through the fallout zone that he much disliked having to continue to serve in a ship, parts of which had been unacceptably radioactive. As of January 2008, the British Ministry of Defence has refused to pay compensation to the remaining crew of Diana, citing a legal technicality that all such claims must be lodged within three years of the diagnosis to which they refer. According to newspaper reports, the decision may see the collapse of the claimants case, or at the least delay the compensation until 2012, at which time more of the ships crew may have died. This incident is referred to in the SAS drama Ultimate Force by Ross Kemps character, SSGt Garvie, who claims his father was a crew member at that time.
Sale to the Peruvian Navy
HMS Diana (D126) in Peruvian navy in September 1973 renamed BAP Palacios (DM-73)
HMS Diana was acquired by the Peruvian Navy in 1969 together with HMS Decoy. Renamed BAP Palacios (DM-73) she served until 1993 when she was stricken.
