HMS Drury (K316)

Career
Class and type:	Captain class frigate
Name:	HMS Drury
Builder:	Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laid down:	12 February 1942
Launched:	24 July 1942
Commissioned:	12 April 1943
Out of service:	Returned to United States Navy on 20 August 1945
Renamed:	Planned as HMS Cockburn Renamed HMS Drury before launching
Career
Name:	USS Drury
Commissioned:	20 August 1945
Decommissioned:	22 October 1945
Struck:	16 November 1945
Fate:	Sold for scrapping in June 1946
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,140 tons
Length:	289.5 ft (88.2 m)
Beam:	35 ft (11 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion:	Four General Motors 278A 16-cylinder engines GE 7,040 bhp (5,250 kW) generators (4,800 kW) GE electric motors for 6,000 shp (4,500 kW) Two shafts
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h)
Range:	5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	156
Sensors and processing systems:	SA & SL type radars Type 144 series Asdic MF Direction Finding antenna HF Direction Finding Type FH 4 antenna
Armament:	3 × 3 in (76 mm) /50 Mk.22 guns 1 x twin Bofors 40 mm mount Mk.I 7-16 x 20 mm Oerlikon guns Mark 10 Hedgehog A/S projector Depth charges QF 2 pounder naval gun
Notes:	Pennant number K316

HMS Drury was a Captain class frigate of the Evarts-class of destroyer escort, originally commissioned to be built for the United States Navy. Before she was finished in 1942, she was transferred to the Royal Navy under the terms of Lend-Lease, and saw service during the Second World War. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named Drury, after Captain T Drury, commander of HMS Alfred in the West Indies in 1795.

Wartime career

She was originally to have been named HMS Cockburn, but the name was changed to HMS Drury prior to her launch on 24 July 1942 by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 12 April 1943 and spent her wartime career on anti-submarine patrols and as a convoy escort. On 23 November 1943 she and the frigates HMS Bazely and HMS Blackwood sank the U-boat Azores. On 21 April 1945 Drury, Bazely and Bentinck sank Ireland.

Post-War return to the United States

Drury was transferred back to the US Navy on 20 August 1945 at Chatham, England. She was commissioned the same day, Lieutenant W. R. Herrick, Jr., USNR, in command. She departed Chatham on 28 August, joined Task Group 21.3 off Dover, and the following day sailed for the States. Drury arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 8 September and remained there at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she was decommissioned on 22 October 1945. She was scrapped in June 1946.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Drury at Uboat.net
• Drury at Captain class frigate association

External links

• Photo gallery of Drury at NavSource Naval History