Stuart, Australian Destroyer


Specifications:


Tonnage 1580 tons standard displacement
Dimensions 332'6" by 3'9" by 12'6"
101.3m by 9.7m by 3.8m
Maximum speed       30 knots
Complement 188
Armament 2x1 4.7"/45 guns
1 3"/40 AA gun
4 2pdr guns
6x1 20mm Oerlikon AA guns
1 light machine gun
2 depth charge throwers
2 depth charge tracks
1 Hedgehog
Machinery
2-shaft Brown-Curtis geared turbine (40,000 shp)
4 Yarrow boilers
Bunkerage 484 tons fuel oil
Range 5500 nautical miles (10,000 km) at 15 knots
Sensors
Type 271 radar
Modifications
1945: Converted to a fast transport. Armament reduced to 1 4"/45 DP gun, 3x1 2pdr guns, and 1x2 and 3x1 20mm guns.

The Stuart was a Scott-class destroyer completed in 1918 in a British yard and transferred to Australia. She was elderly and, although designed for 36.5 knots, could probably not make more than 30. Unfit for anything but convoy escort duty, she was gradually stripped of her main gun armament and torpedoes in favor of antiaircraft and antisubmarine gear.

She was undergoing refit in Australia when war broke out in the Pacific. This was completed by late 1942 and she served with U.S. 7 Fleet in New Guinea for the remainder of the war.


References

Whitley (1988)


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