HMS Loch Dunvegan was a frigate of the British Royal Navy, named after Loch Dunvegan in Scotland. Launched in 1944, the ship saw service in the Second World War, and in the Mediterranean Fleet in the early 1950s, before being broken up in 1960.
Design and construction
The Loch class was designed to meet the requirement for large numbers of long-range escorts for the Royal Navy. They were a development of the earlier , but designed for mass production, with pre-fabricated sections to be built by general engineering companies and assembled at shipyards. Anti-submarine armament and sonar was also significantly improved.
The ships were long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of , and a draught of . Displacement was standard and deep load. The ships were powered by two 4-cylinder triple expansion steam engines fed with steam from two Admiralty 3-drum boilers and rated at . This gave a speed of . Sufficient fuel was carried to give a range of at in tropical waters.
The ships' main gun armament was a single QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk V gun forward, with an anti-aircraft armament of a quadruple 2-pounder (40 mm) pom-pom aft and at least six Oerlikon 20 mm cannon (two twin powered mountings and at least two single mounts). Two Squid anti-submarine mortars were fitted, with 120 rounds carried, backed up by 15 conventional depth charges. Type 147B and Type 144 sonars were fitted, while Type 277 radar detected surface and air targets. As built, the ship had a complement of 114 officers and men.
The ship was ordered on 19 January 1943 as the third of her class, and was laid down at Charles Hill & Sons' Bristol shipyard on 29 September 1943. Loch Dunvegan was launched on 25 March 1944 by the wife of the shipyard owner, as the first ship of her name to serve with the Royal Navy. The ship completed fitting out on 25 June 1944, with a construction time of 274 days.
Service history
Second World War
Commissioning in June 1944 with the pennant number K425, the ship was allocated for service in the 10th Escort Group based on the Clyde. In August she was attached to the 20th Escort Group to prepare for Russian convoy duty,