HMS ''Harvester'' was an H-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

originally ordered by the

Brazilian Navy The Brazilian Navy () is the navy, naval service branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, responsible for conducting naval warfare, naval operations. The navy was involved in War of Independence of Brazil#Naval action, Brazil's war of independence ...

with the name ''Jurua'' in the late 1930s, but bought by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

after the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in September 1939. Almost immediately after being commissioned, in May 1940, the ship began evacuating Allied troops from Dunkirk and other locations in France. Afterwards she was assigned to the

Western Approaches Command Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsibl ...

for convoy escort duties. ''Harvester'' and another destroyer sank a German submarine in October. She was briefly assigned to

Force H Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in late-June 1940, to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany. The force occupied an odd place ...

in May 1941, but her anti-aircraft armament was deemed too weak and she was transferred to the

Newfoundland Escort Force Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF) was a Second World War naval command created on 20 May 1941 as part of the Allied convoy system in the Battle of the Atlantic. Created in response to the movement of German U-boats into the western Atlantic Oce ...

in June 1941 for escort duties in the North Atlantic. The ship was returned to the Western Approaches Command in October 1941 and was converted to an

escort destroyer An escort destroyer was a small warship built to full naval standards which was optimised for air-defence and anti-submarine duties in wartime, but which retained many of the capabilities of a traditional fleet destroyer, enabling it to conduct ...

in early 1942. ''Harvester'' was torpedoed and sunk in March 1943 by a German submarine after having rammed and sunk another submarine the previous day while escorting Convoy HX 228.

Description

''Harvester'' displaced at

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

load and at

deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...

. The ship had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of . She was powered by Parsons geared

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

s, driving two shafts, which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3-drum

water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-generat ...

s. ''Harvester'' carried a maximum of of fuel oil, giving her a range of at .Whitley, p. 109 The ship's complement was 152 officers and men.Lenton, p. 163 The vessel was designed for four 45-

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...

4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear, but 'Y' gun was removed to compensate for the additional depth charges added. For

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

(AA) defence, ''Harvester'' had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0.5 inch Vickers Mark III machine gun. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

mounts for torpedoes. One

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

rail and two throwers were originally fitted, but this was increased to three sets of rails and eight throwers while

fitting-out Fitting out, or outfitting, is the process in shipbuilding that follows the float-out/launching of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her o ...

. The ship's load of depth charges was also increased, from 20 to 110.

Wartime modifications

''Harvester'' had her rear torpedo tubes replaced by a 12-pounder AA gun after the

evacuation of Dunkirk The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

in 1940, but it is not known exactly when this modification was made. During her 1942 conversion to an escort destroyer, the ship's short-range AA armament had been augmented by two Oerlikon 20 mm guns on the wings of the ship's

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

. The .50-calibre machine gun mounts were replaced by a pair of Oerlikons later. 'A' gun was replaced by a

Hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. The ...

anti-submarine

spigot mortar A mortar today is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded cannon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod ...

. The ship's director-control tower and

rangefinder A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to Length measurement, measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, suc ...

above the

were removed in exchange for a Type 271 target indication radar. A Type 286 short-range surface search radar was probably also fitted midway through the war. The ship also received a HF/DF

radio direction finder Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a natural ...

mounted on a pole

mainmast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, giving necessary height to a navigation light ...

Service

''Jurua'' was ordered by Brazil on 6 December 1937 from

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

. The ship was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

on 3 June 1938 and she was purchased by the British on 5 September 1939 and renamed HMS ''Handy''. The ship was launched on 29 September 1939 and renamed ''Harvester'' in January 1940 as her original name was thought too liable to be confused with . ''Harvester'' was commissioned on 23 May and briefly worked up at

Portland Harbour Portland Harbour is beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its surface area made it the largest human-made harbour in the world, and it remains ...

before she was assigned to the

9th Destroyer Flotilla The 9th Destroyer Flotilla, or Ninth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the British Royal Navy from January 1913 to December 1925 and again in January to July 1940. History Established in January 1913 when it was assigned to the Pa ...

.English, p. 127 The ship joined the Dunkirk evacuation on 29 May and returned 272 men to Dover during the day. However, the situation at Dunkirk soon became too dangerous to risk the larger and more modern destroyers, so ''Harvester'' made no attempt to evacuate any troops during daylight hours on 30 May. This decision was rescinded during the day on 30 May and the ship sailed for Dunkirk on the night of 30/31 May. En route she was narrowly missed by two torpedoes, but she rescued 1341 men in two trips on 31 May and an additional 576 on 1 June. ''Harvester'' was lightly damaged by

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such a ...

German aircraft that same day and required repairs that were made at Chatham. On 9 June the ship was ordered to

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

, France, to evacuate British troops, but none were to be found. She loaded 78 men at

Saint-Valery-en-Caux Saint-Valery-en-Caux (, literally ''Saint-Valery in Pays de Caux, Caux'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region in northern France. The ad ...

on 11 June. Later in the month she escorted ships evacuating refugees and troops from

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Oc ...

and St. Jean de Luz (

Operation Aerial Operation Aerial was the evacuation of Allied military forces and civilians from ports in western France. The operation took place from 15 to 25 June 1940 during the Second World War. The embarkation followed the Allied military collapse in th ...

). From July to September, ''Harvester'' was assigned to convoy escort duties with the

and she rescued 90 survivors from the

armed merchant cruiser An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...

on 27 August. The ship, together with five other destroyers of the 9th Flotilla, was assigned to Plymouth Command for anti-invasion duties between 8 and 18 September before returning to her role as an escort vessel. On 30 October, with help from her

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

, she sank the . ''Harvester'' rescued 19 survivors from the merchant vessel on 5 December and 131 survivors from the ocean boarding vessel torpedoed by on 3 February 1941. She also rescued four survivors from a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium/heavy bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the World W ...

bomber four days later. The ship was refitted at Barrow between 18 March and 18 April and then was assigned to

in Gibraltar where she escorted ships during Operations Tiger and Splice in May. ''Harvester'' was transferred to the

in June as her anti-aircraft capability was believed by Admiral

James Somerville Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville (17 July 1882 – 19 March 1949) was a Royal Navy admiral of the fleet. He served in the First World War as fleet wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet where he was involved in providing ...

to be too weak. She was assigned to the 14th

Escort Group An Escort Group consisted of several small warships organized and trained to operate together protecting trade convoys. Escort groups were a World War II tactical innovation in anti-submarine warfare by the Royal Navy to combat the threat of the ...

upon her arrival at St. John's on 1 July. The ship was transferred back to the Western Approaches Command three months later and assigned to the 9th Escort Group.Rohwer, p. 104 ''Harvester'' was converted to an escort destroyer during a lengthy refit at

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland, from 30 January 1942 to 16 April. She conducted

sea trial A sea trial or trial trip is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on op ...

s of her Type 271 radar during May and then resumed her escort duties in the North Atlantic as flagship of Mid-Ocean Escort Force Escort Group B-3.English, p. 128 The ship was refitted at

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

between 12 December and 11 February 1943. Whilst defending Convoy HX 228 on 3 March, ''Harvester'' forced to the surface and then rammed it. She was badly damaged by the ramming, suffering damage to her propellers in the process, but rescued five survivors after the submarine sank. The next day, ''Harvester'' was torpedoed by and broke in half. Nine officers and 136 ratings were lost, including her commander and Escort Group leader AA "Harry" Tait, but the rammed and sank ''U-432'' herself and then rescued ''Harvester''s few survivors.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harvester (H19) Jurua-class destroyers Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1939 ships G and H-class destroyers of the Royal Navy World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in March 1943 Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean