Dates: 1943 - 1978
HMS Matapan was a 1943 Battle class fleet destroyer of the Royal Navy.
She was named after the Battle of Cape Matapan between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina, and which ended in a decisive victory for the RN force, resulting in the destruction of three cruisers and two destroyers of the Italian Navy and was a heavy blow to the Italians, coming only months after their battleship fleet had been mortally wounded at Taranto. So far, she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear that name. Matapan was built by John Brown & Company.
She was launched on the on 30 April 1945 and commissioned on the on 5 September 1947.
She was placed in Reserve just before she commissioned and would remain in such a state for a lengthy period of time, yet in the process she outlived all her sister-ships in Royal Navy service. In 1970, Matapan was towed to Portsmouth where she began her conversion to a Sonar Trials Ship that resulted in her appearance becoming radically different from when she was launched in 1945.
In 1973, upon her conversion being completed, Matapan entered active service for the very first time, joining the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE), based in Portland. It was to be quite a short career for Matapan, when after a variety of sonar trials, which included co-operation with foreign navies, Matapan was decommissioned in 1978. She was broken up the following year at Blyth in Northumberland.
