On July 6, 1971, HMS Cavalier and HMS Rapid, two veterans of the Royal Navy,
met off Scotland's Firth of Forth for a historic showdown.
That morning, both ships set off in a 64-mile-long race.
The air was charged with tension as onlookers waited for the winning vessel’s arrival,
but the North Atlantic Sea was a mirror of calm,
unlike 25 years before, when this same duo of ships fought for the Allies.
Once racing, Cavalier's crew, a mix of experienced and young
sailors, were united in purpose, their ship cutting through the water at an
astonishing 31 knots. But Rapid's men were just as good and just as fast.
After going neck to neck for the majority of the race, Rapid suddenly suffered a
mechanical setback, and this twist of fate gave Cavalier her chance to seize the moment.
Cavalier, just like she’d done on many occasions before, surged at full speed.
That day, winning by just 30 yards, HMS Cavalier, a ship nearly three decades old, earned the title
of the fastest in the fleet, immortalizing a legacy that began all the way back in 1944.
In early 1943, World War 2 was in full swing,
and Nazi Germany was in the middle of a relentless bombing campaign that targeted
industrial facilities and infrastructure crucial to the British war effort.
One of their targets was the prominent British shipbuilding firm J. Samuel White and Company
Limited's Shipyard at Cowes, Isle of Wight, in the English Channel. But despite the damage,
engineers and workers were determined to carry on.
At the same time, the Royal Navy faced significant challenges across multiple
theaters of war. To beat Nazi Germany, the branch urgently required vessels that could
engage in direct combat, escort convoys, lay mines, and perform reconnaissance.
From this emerged many ships, like destroyers HMS Cavalier.
Rapidly designed and constructed to meet the urgent demands of the war, Cavalier was part
of the 32 built C-class destroyers that measured 362.75 feet in overall length and blended speed,
firepower, and durability, features essential for the high-stakes environment.
Cavalier was one of the first British ships in history to be developed with the use of electric
welding at the request of the Admiralty. This method, combining welded and riveted sections,
enhanced the ship's strength and speed and allowed women, who were increasingly part of the workforce
during the war, to contribute more efficiently than in the traditional, labor-intensive process.
Commissioned in late 1944 under the leadership of Lieutenant Commander Donald Terry McBarnet,
HMS Cavalier entered service at a critical juncture,
just as the Allies were intensifying their efforts in all theaters.
And so, the finished Cavalier, with a main armament of four 4.5-inch guns and
a top speed of 31 knots, joined the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet’s 6th Destroyer Flotilla.
In the first two months of 1945, Cavalier performed operations in
and around Norwegian waters, in operations like Selenium, against German shipping,
Shred, a minesweeping mission, and Groundsheet, mine laying.
These types of missions and every operation in the North Atlantic were not for the faint
of heart, and those who survived told of incredibly harsh conditions with sub-zero
temperatures endured on Arctic convoys with the ever-present threat of mines and torpedoes.
Meanwhile, the gun crews, manning their stations on the open deck often drenched in icy cold water,
were endlessly exposed to the elements and the threat of the
enemy with little to no shelter as the ship navigated the ocean.
One of these operations was Convoy RA 64, which departed the Kola Inlet on February 17, 1945.
Originally consisting of merchant vessels of American, British, and Norwegian origin,
RA 64 sailed for the south, transporting essential supplies despite facing significant odds. These
were accompanied by protection vessels like destroyers, sloops, and corvettes.
From the get-go, the convoy faced threats from German U-boats, and on the first night, U-425
was detected and sunk by one of the corvettes and sloops. However, the latter was hit by a torpedo
from patrolling U-Boat U-968 the following day and had to be towed to Kola as a total loss.
Amidst harsh weather, the convoy scattered multiple times, enduring U-boat and air attacks,
including the sinking of an American merchantman and a corvette with only one survivor.
Despite regrouping efforts, the convoy lost another merchantman,
and, braving a powerful literal and figurative storm, the Royal
Navy decided to send six destroyers to the fray between February 21 and 26.
On the 23rd, HMS Cavalier, under Lieutenant Commander McBarnet's
leadership, sailed from Scapa Flow to reinforce the escort of the westbound
Arctic Convoy RA64. Once she and her crew met up with the scattered convoy,
her timely arrival, speed, power, teamwork, and strategic maneuvers were put to the test.
Faster than anyone imagined, Cavalier was pivotal in regrouping and rounding up the
scattered vessels, and on March 1, thirty-one of the thirty-four
merchant ships arrived safely and reached their Scottish destination.
This involvement in the final stages of convoy RA
64 passage led to the award of her sole battle honor in the war.
Despite a great crew and an even greater commander,
Cavalier simply joined the war too late to make much of an impact, and she spent the remaining
months of the European war operating in the Western Approaches as an escort.
Because of Cavalier's high-speed capability, she was selected to
help escort the troopships RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth,
and Aquitannia during the initial and final stages of their transatlantic trooping voyages,
bringing thousands of American soldiers across the dangerous war zone of the Atlantic Ocean.
According to documents, these journeys were completed at such
speed that one of her crew described conditions on board as horrendous.
After Victory Day, when the Allies formally accepted Nazi Germany's
unconditional surrender, ending the war in Europe,
she underwent a brief refit to prepare for service within the British Pacific Fleet.
However, the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the conflict
to a close before the destroyer even left her home waters. Following this,
she was reassigned to the East Indies Station,
where she arrived in late September 1945 to help re-establish order in the troubled region.
The war was over, but her service was not.
In February 1946, HMS Cavalier, alongside HMS Petard,
headed to Bombay in response to a mutiny within the Indian Navy.
Subsequently, she was assigned to Singapore for service with the British
Pacific Fleet and undertook the vital task of transporting Chinese nationals to Hong Kong.
Her mission continued in the Dutch East Indies,
supporting Allied troops and escorting US-built minesweepers to Subic Bay, Philippines.
After completing these duties, Cavalier journeyed from Singapore to Trincomalee
and finally to Portsmouth on May 11, 1946, where she joined the Reserve Fleet for years until 1951.
Between 1955 and 1957, HMS Cavalier,
a ship from the war era, was modernized for the new demands of the mid-century.
At Thornycroft's Woolston shipyard in Southampton for two years, her
capabilities were enhanced as a general-purpose escort ship.
These changes included adding the latest Mk 6M fire control and remote power control
fitted to her guns, and her after torpedo tubes were replaced by a deckhouse with
two Squid anti-submarine mortars and a twin Mk 5 Bofors anti-aircraft gun.
When the new and improved HMS Cavalier rejoined the Fleet in July 1957,
she sailed once more for the Far East.
In 1958, she was part of a task force that patrolled the waters off Christmas Island,
in Australian territory, when a United Kingdom team of scientists tested some
of the nation's early atomic and hydrogen bombs.
For years, Cavalier continued her service in the Far East, but her time was running out.
During the Brunei Revolt against the formation of Malaysia in late 1962,
HMS Cavalier swiftly moved to Singapore. There, she embarked The Queen's Own Highlanders,
an elite regiment of the British Army, transporting them and their equipment to Brunei.
Upon arrival, Cavalier played a key role as a communications
hub and in handling captured rebels ashore.
In 1964, while being taken for a refit, she and Liberian-registered tanker Burgan collided in an
accident in the English Channel. While there were no human casualties in the incident,
the destroyer lost her bows, and she had to be towed for emergency repairs.
Following another tour in the Far East, she returned to the UK in May 1968, where she
would spend the remainder of her active service operating in Home Waters and the Mediterranean.
On September 8, 1970,
coaster St Brandon caught fire in the Bristol Channel while in rough weather.
While Cavalier was acting as plane guard to aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal during
an exercise, the destroyer was called up to help the beleaguered coaster.
Once there, a French trawler had already rescued the crew,
but the destroyer stood by the blazing ship to warn others and report on whether she sank.
Despite the force of winds, a boarding party managed to secure a tow line
on September 10 and brought her into Milford Haven a day later.
But this exercise, where Cavalier arrived swiftly to the scene despite being a wartime ship,
led to receiving a challenge that would secure her a proud place in Naval history.
Following the response, HMS Rapid’s crew challenged Cavalier to a speed contest.
By then, the ships, both destroyers, were considered elderly by Naval standards,
but with the phasing out of other Royal Navy ships of their type,
the duo was still two of the fastest vessels in the entire branch.
Although Rapid had undergone a transformation from a wartime R-class destroyer to more
of a frigate, she retained the same hull form and machinery as Cavalier,
making them an even match, and Cavalier's crew agreed.
When a national newspaper contributed to the cause by donating a trophy,
this attracted great publicity, and the stage was set.
On July 6, 1971, HMS Cavalier and Rapid, two of the Royal Navy's fastest ships,
sliced through the waters, facing off in a historic race off Scotland's Firth of Forth.
For two hours, the ships matched each other's pace, and the air was charged
with excitement as the race progressed, with the two vessels speeding at a similar rate.
However, a pivotal moment came when Rapid encountered a mechanical hiccup with a
safety valve, allowing Cavalier to edge ahead.
With this, narrowly winning only 30 yards ahead over a 64-mile stretch, Cavalier,
a nearly three-decade-old ship, triumphed with an average speed of 31.8 knots,
earning the moniker "The fastest of the Greyhounds" in the celebrated race.
But despite her award and performance in the 1971 race,
HMS Cavalier was nearing the end of her distinguished career.
Approved for disposal in December 1971, she returned to Chatham Dockyard for the
final time on July 5, 1972, having steamed a remarkable 564,140 miles.
At Chatham, she was laid up to await her fate.
After HMS Cavalier was decommissioned, she initially joined the reserve fleet in Portsmouth.
Recognizing her historical value, preservationists and even Lord Louis
Mountbatten campaigned to save her, leading to several ownership and location changes,
including stays in Brighton and Southampton through the years.
In 1998, the only remaining World War 2 ship of her type was acquired by the
now-transformed Chatham Historic Dockyard to be converted into a memorial to the 142
Royal Navy destroyers sunk during World War 2 and the over 11,000 men who lost their lives.
A few years later, the memorial committee short-listed six artists for the project,
choosing respected sculptor Kenneth Potts for the commission.
Finally, in 2007, the HMS Cavalier war memorial was unveiled by Prince Philip, with a bronze
sculpture by Potts as the centerpiece. In an interview, the artist described it as [QUOTE]:
“The moving story of ordinary men engaged in a
titanic battle against an implacable enemy and the unrelenting elements.…”