HMS ''Zenith'' was a Z-class destroyer of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

built as by

William Denny and Brothers William Denny and Brothers Limited, often referred to simply as Denny, was a Scottish shipbuilding company. History The shipbuilding interests of the Denny family date back to William Denny (born 1779), for whom ships are recorded being buil ...

, Dunbarton. She was ordered as part of the 10th Emergency Flotilla, and was originally to have been named . She spent her first ten years in Royal Navy service, before being sold to the Egyptian Navy, which operated her as ''El Fateh''. She was a training ship until 2014, and her name was transferred to a new vessel in 2017, but she remains listed by the IISS.

Second World War

On commissioning and work up ''Zenith'' joined the Home Fleet, however defects required repair and she was allocated for service in the Far East. She took passage to the Far East via the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, but the war ended before she saw any operational service.

Postwar Service

During 1946 ''Zenith'' was part of the

4th Destroyer Flotilla The British 4th Destroyer Flotilla , or Fourth Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from August 1909 to July 1951. History In 1907 the Home Fleet had a large formation of destroyers called the Home Fleet Flotilla of destr ...

of the Home Fleet. In 1947 she was placed into reserve at Chatham, where she remained until 1950. On 17 October 1950 she was towed to Palmers on the River Tyne for refit. She was then part of the Harwich reserve between 1951 and 1954. Her proposed conversion to a Type 15 frigate was cancelled and in May 1955 she was transferred

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

along with sister ship .

Egyptian service

''Zenith'' was sold to

in 1955 and commissioned into the Egyptian Navy as ''El Fateh''. She was refitted by John I. Thornycroft,

Woolston Woolston may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington * Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon * Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...

and sailed for Egypt on 28 August 1956. She was modernized at

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, Cowes between May 1963 and July 1964. The ship was relegated to the role of a training vessel and remains extant today. Various attempts at preservation over the years have been made, but negotiations for the sale of the ship by the Egyptian Government have not been concluded as at 2014. In September 2017, the name "El Fateh" appears to have been transferred to the first of Egypt's new Gowind-2500 corvettes. The ship's name "was transferred to the new corvette in order to commemorate the historic destroyer that played a great role during the 1973

October War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Eg ...

. The report did not indicate what if anything had been done to the Z-class destroyer El Fateh. Google images showed the possibility of the ship being scrapped in 2016.

References

Publications

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External links

HMS ''Zenith'' at Uboat.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zenith (R95) W and Z-class destroyers Ships built on the River Clyde 1944 ships World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom Naval ships of Egypt