HMS Hogue was a of the Royal Navy that was commissioned during the Second World War. She was named after the Battle of La Hogue, fought between the British and French in 1692; the ship's badge a chess rook on a field blue, within a chaplet of laurel gold was derived from the arms of Admiral Sir George Rooke who distinguished himself at the battle.
Hogue was built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead during the Second World and launched on 21 April 1944.
Design and construction
The Battle-class was developed as a result of operational experience in the early years of the Second World War, which had shown that the Royal Navy's existing destroyers had inadequate anti-aircraft protection, and in particular, lacked a modern dual-purpose main gun armament, capable of dealing with both surface targets and air attack, with guns lacking the high elevation mountings necessary to deal with dive bombers. The resulting design was armed with two twin 4.5 inch high-angle gun-turrets of a new design mounted forward and a heavy close-in anti-aircraft armament, with 16 Battle-class destroyers ordered under the 1942 construction programme. Four of these sixteen ships were to be built by Cammell Laird, with Hogue and ordered on 27 April 1942.
Hogue was long overall, at the waterline and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of normal and at full load. Displacement was standard and full load. Close-in anti aircraft consisted of eight Bofors 40 mm guns in four twin stabilised Hazemayer mounts, with two power-operated 2-pounder guns on the bridge wings. Two quadruple 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo-tubes were fitted, and the third ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy, was laid down at Cammel Laird's Birkenhead shipyard on 6 January 1943, launched on 21 April 1944 and completed on 24 July 1945.
Hogue was commissioned on 12 July 1945, The ship was assigned to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla of the British Pacific Fleet, but arrived in the Pacific too late to take part in the Second World War. She operated against the Icelandic Coast Guard during the First Cod War. In September, it was claimed by Iceland that she had collided with the trawler Northern Foam while trying to prevent her being boarded by the Maria Julia.
In 1959, Hogue almost collided while refuelling with the aircraft carrier in the Bay of Biscay. killing a sailor and injuring three others. So extensive was the damage that she remained in Singapore until broken up in 1962, having been deemed to be a "Constructive total loss".