HMS Brilliant (H84)
HMS Brilliant was a B-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy (RN) around 1930. Initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, she was transferred to the Home Fleet in 1936. The ship then patrolled Spanish waters enforcing the arms blockade during the first year of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. She spent most of World War II on convoy escort duties in the English Channel, and the North Atlantic, based at Dover, Gibraltar, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. During the war, Brilliant never destroyed a submarine, but did sink a Vichy French minesweeper during Operation Torch. She also intercepted two German supply ships and rescued survivors of two troopships that had been torpedoed by submarines. The ship became a target ship at the end of the war and was scrapped in 1948.
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | Brilliant |
| Ordered | 22 March 1929 |
| Builder | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
| Launched | 9 October 1930 |
| Completed | 21 February 1931 |
| Decommissioned | November 1945 |
| Reclassified | As target ship, May 1945 |
| Identification | Pennant number: H84 |
| Fate | Sold, 21 February 1948 and scrapped, April 1948 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | B-class destroyer |
| Displacement | 1,360 long tons (1,380 t) (standard) |
| Length | 323 ft (98.5 m) (o/a) |
| Beam | 32 ft 3 in (9.8 m) |
| Draught | 12 ft 3 in (3.7 m) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Range | 4,800 nmi (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement | 142 (wartime) |
| Sensors and processing systems | Type 119 ASDIC |
| Armament |
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