HMS Redoubt Destroyer

1942 HMS REDOUBT. An interim design which took the successful features of two predecessors and combined them in a utility ship, which was quicker and cheaper to produce and much better suited to general fleet duties.

THE Q AND R CLASSES

In all, some 16 ships of the combined class were constructed over a 14-month period, the first, HMS Quality, being launched in October 1941,the last, HMS Roebuckin December 1942. By this time, any notion of maintaining the sort of build quality which had been seen in pre British warships had gone completely by the board, and they were roughly finished; nonetheless, the standard was high enough to ensure that the four R-class ships retained in British service after the war were extensively rebuilt to serve as anti-submarine frigates. Redoubt was not amongst them. She was launched by John Browns on the Clyde on 2 May 1942, she saw out the Second World War and was then transferred to India in 1949, to serve as the Ranjit. She was stricken in 1979, after a 37-year career.

BREAK WITH CONVENTION

The hull form on which the Qs and Rs were based was that of the J class, which had been the last British destroyers to be designed before the out break of the Second World War in 1939. They were the first in British ser vice to have longitudinal framing, a system which had first been tested in
the Denny-built prototype Ardent in 1913, and for the Qs and Rs this was modified by the addition of a transom stern, which had also been introduced into the Fiji-class cruisers at the same time. They were never to receive the best of the 4.7in (120mm) guns which were then available, the 50-calibre Mark Xl, but they were fitted instead with four 45-calibre Mark lXs in single mountings.

TECHNICAL DATA

Type: Fleet destroyer Machinery: 2-shaft Parsons geared turbines giving a total of 40,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 109.2m (358.25ft); beam, 10.9m {35.7ft) Displacement: 1705t standard, 2425t deep load
Draught: 4.3m (l4ft) deep load
Complement 175-225