Dates: 1944 - 1962

HMS St. Kitts (D18) was a Battle-class destroyer of the Royal Navy (RN). She was named in honour of the Battle of St. Kitts which took place in 1782. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. St. Kitts was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited on the Tyne. She was launched on the on 4 October 1944 and commissioned on the on 21 January 1946.

St. Kitts joined the 5th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet upon commission. In 1948, St. Kitts deployed to the Arctic to join the carrier HMS Vengeance, along with a variety of other ships, including other Battle-class destroyer during experiments in that region. In 1953, St. Kitts took part in the large Fleet Review at Spithead to celebration the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. St. Kitts was positioned in the middle of her sister-ships HMS Camperdown and HMS Barfleur. St. Kitts was subsequently placed in Reserve.

In 1954, St. Kitts joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, also part of the Home Fleet. In 1955, St. Kitts, still with the 3rd Flotilla, deployed to the Mediterranean, and took part in the Suez Crisis, which had occurred after the nationalisation of the Suez Canal by the Egyptian leader Nasser. During Operation Musketeer, the invasion of Egypt, St. Kitts performed a variety of duties, including escorting the carrier HMS Eagle, as-well as performing naval bombardment of Port Said. That same year, St. Kitts, along with the rest of the Flotilla, left the Mediterranean to join the Home Fleet. In 1957, St. Kitts was decommissioned, being scrapped in 1962 at Sunderland.

Memories of HMS St Kitts

HMS ST Kitts in the 1950's in 2002
Written by peter Thrower
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"the 5th flotilla, 7 ships doing an A sweep,7 wire cables from stern to stern to cut up some mines, anyway all of a sudden the next ship headed straight for us hit us amid ships, our skipper shouted over the loud hailer to the offending ship , If you touch me there again I shall scream. Anyway the hole it made was above the water line, we all thought we were going back to harbour for repairs, and a run ashore, O'h no covered it with canvas painted it grey & carried on with the exercise.

another time on the same ship, I was down in the steering gear compartment, checking temeratures etc, when all of a sudden a hell of a bang, our skipper had got a school of fish on the radar and dropped several depth charges, we had enough fish which were stunned to do the whole crew of 250 fish and chips. So hows that me hearty's Peter."

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