HMS ''Hotham'' (K583) was a Captain-class

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

of the ''Buckley'' class of

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

, originally intended for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. Before she was finished in 1944, she was transferred to 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 ...

under the terms of

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft) * 28 naval vessels: ** 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign (05), HMS Royal Sovereign) * ...

, and was in commission from 1944 to 1956, including service during

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 ...

Construction and transfer

The still-unnamed 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 ...

as the U.S. Navy

DE-574 by

Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard The Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard of Hingham, Massachusetts, was a shipyard in the United States from 1941 until 1945. Located on Weymouth Back River, it was owned by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company and operated by the nearby Fore River Shipyard. ...

, Inc., in Hingham,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, on 5 November 1943. Allocated to the United Kingdom, she received the British name ''Hotham'' and was launched on 21 December 1943. She was transferred to the United Kingdom upon completion on 8 February 1944.

Service history

Commissioned into service in the

as the frigate HMS ''Hotham'' (K583) on 8 February 1944 simultaneously with her transfer, the ship served on escort duty for the rest of World War II. On 28 June 1944, she joined the

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 picking up survivors from the

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...

SS ''Maid of Orleans'' southeast of St. Catherine's Point,

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, at . Unlike the other Captain-class frigates, ''Hotham'' was retained by the Royal Navy after the war, and was disarmed and sent to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

in 1945 for use as a floating

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

, moving later in the year to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

for use as a station ship. She returned to the United Kingdom in 1947, and in 1948 was at

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

to serve as a

floating power station A powership (or power ship) is a special purpose ship, on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource. Converted from existing ships, powerships are self-propelled, ready to go infrastructure for developing country, d ...

. The Royal Navy later used her for experiments with

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

propulsion. The Royal Navy nominally returned ''Hotham'' to the

United States Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

on 25 April 1952 under the terms of Lend-Lease, but the United States simultaneously transferred her back to the United Kingdom under the terms of the

Mutual Defense Assistance Program The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on October 6, 1949. For U.S. foreign policy, it was the first U.S. military Aid, foreign aid legislation of the Cold War, Cold War era, and ...

Disposal

The Royal Navy returned ''Hotham'' to U.S. custody for the final time on 13 March 1956, and she was sold for scrapping in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

on 1 November 1956.

Citations

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotham (K583) Captain-class frigates Buckley-class destroyer escorts World War II frigates of the United Kingdom Ships built in Hingham, Massachusetts 1943 ships