[Music]
we're now on board hms cavalier the last
remaining second world war destroyer of
the royal navy and now the memorial ship
to the 142 destroyers and the 11 000 men
that were lost on them welcome on board
[Music]
during world war ii destroyers became
the most in-demand ship type in the
british fleet
the nature of naval warfare made them
versatile ships escorting convoys
anti-submarine warfare air defense
reconnaissance patrols mine laying mine
sweeping and fire support for landing
troops
destroyers were needed everywhere and in
great numbers
cavalier was
built
at white's
builder's yard shipbuilding yard on the
isle of wight
in the early part of 44
she was
part welded which was one of the first
ships warships ever to be welded
and women were able to undertake this
task because they
it was a lighter work than the original
riveting and
hammering and
and but uh because they couldn't trust
the early welding they only used it on
the bow and the stern the the main
structure of the ship was still riveted
during her building
um
the yard and the isle of wight suffered
quite a few bombing raids from the
germans
um
what they did uh these ships all the
ship new ships were being built all over
the country
so that if one yard was bombed then
there were still others being built
cavalier was one of the 112 destroyers
built by british shipyards under the war
emergency program in 1939-1945
these ships were somewhat different from
one another in terms of their armaments
equipment and design features but they
were all based on one successful
destroyer design which had been
developed as far back as in 1936
specifications of destroyer cavalier
length 111 meters beam almost 11 meters
draft almost five meters total
displacement
2510 tons armament primary armament four
114 millimeter qf l45 mark iv guns in
mark 5 single mounts anti-aircraft
artillery one bofors l60 twin mount
caliber 40 millimeters two twin and one
single mounts with oerlikon auto cannons
caliber 20 millimeters
two quadruple mark eight torpedo tubes
caliber 533 millimeters
the destroyer's power plant consists of
two admiralty boilers and two parsons
steam turbines power 40 000 hp
maximum speed 32 knots
cruising range
3900 miles at 20 knots
part of cavalier's modernization in
later years was the addition of these
squid mortars that would fire six
mortars simultaneously at a target that
had been detected by sonar
as well as more modern anti-submarine
weapons with the squid mortar hms
cavalier was also modernised in her
later life to include anti-aircraft
missiles the c-cap which were fired from
a seating position just in front of the
launcher
[Music]
okay so we're now on the bridge of hms
cavalier uh an open bridge as you can
see the canopy above our heads here is a
later edition during her time in the
second world war particularly serving
through the arctic convoy she didn't
actually have this open bridge this was
really to protect the crew against the
sun during her time in the far east
this really is one of the nerve centers
of the ship so commands could be issued
from here through to the engine room to
the ops room to gunnery control
and this is a very unique space this is
the last royal navy destroyer in the in
the world that has an open surviving
bridge like this
[Music]
we're now in the midships area of hms
cavalier now an open space this space
has been used to transport vehicles land
rovers troops any other equipment that's
been required going back to her time
during the second world war she was
actually equipped with eight 21 inch
mark 8 torpedo tubes and they removed
towards the end of the 50s in favour of
the squid system which you can now see
at the aft end of the ship
[Music]
because defense plants were overloaded
and there were disruptions in supplies
the destroyers were fitted with
different armaments however though built
under emergency conditions cavalier
became one of the c-class destroyers
which received quick firing 114
millimeter main battery guns that could
also engage aerial targets i was a
gunner on here i've
worked on a gun
and it could be very very dangerous up
there um
you wouldn't today's health and safety
you would never get away with it
but uh we
the guns were hand loaded
uh the shells were very heavy
uh the seas uh if the sea was coming
over we could have water running over
our feet
you know waves coming over the gun and
whatever when it was really bad you
couldn't fight the gun you had to come
away from that you couldn't
this is the four five
four point five gun
it took a 50 pound shell
uh that's
this one here
the cartridge weighed about 14 50 i know
18 pounds
the shell and the cartridge were loaded
into this tray
the tray went over and rammed
the shell
into the breach
when the gun fired the gun recoiled all
this came back here
the empty cartridge was ejected and hit
the net and fell on the deck when you
ended up with 20 of these rolling in the
deck
in rough weather
it could be quite dangerous
[Music]
hms cavalier made her combat debut in
november 1944 the destroyer participated
in operations near the coast of norway
and in february 1945 she escorted convoy
ra-64 which was coming from moormansk
during the cruise cavalier entered a
violent storm was seriously damaged and
it was a miracle that she reached home
for this mission cavalier was decorated
with the arctic
1945 battle honor
i spent three days in a typhoon off
the philippines
and
it is so bad that you all you can do is
hang on
especially at the front end of the ship
[Music]
as the ship dives under a wave
she stops and then shudders out
up out the next wave and then over the
top of the next one and
you've got waves
60 or 80 foot high you're going into
and you have to arrange your movement
around the ship you're hanging on all
the time and as the ship goes down
you hang on and then when she pauses you
move forward
and then as she's coming over and ready
to drop again she's perhaps dropping 30
foot 40 foot
and you just hang on because it's like
going down a fast lift and when you hit
the bottom
your knees buckle
it was
pretty horrendous to to be living under
those conditions
very bad conditions i wouldn't want to
go through it again
and during the war they had the added
fear that if they were attacked
and damaged or sunk
they wouldn't survive more than a couple
of a
couple of minutes in the sea
as you know a ship without sailors is a
sophisticated but useless structure only
a skillful and tight-knit crew can turn
her into a formidable combat unit the
rules and traditions of naval service in
the british fleet inevitably made the
crew and the ship a single organism
now here we are in one of cavaliers mess
decks there would have been up to 225
people on board during the war and that
number dropped to about 180 in peacetime
most of the crew had bunks like these
but some of them still had to sling
hammocks even in 1972 when the ship was
decommissioned and in battle that's 225
people who had to act as one body and
the ship's motto of one company further
reinforced that point
[Music]
cavaliers sailed on her last combat
missions during world war ii in the
western approaches of the british isles
escorting famous cruise liners queen
mary queen elizabeth and aquitania these
fast ships carried thousands of u.s
soldiers to europe just before world war
ii queen mary won the blue ribbon
accolade as the fastest passenger vessel
in the atlantic however when cavalier
escorted liners carrying troops she
didn't lag behind by even an inch she
only proved the point of british sailors
who called destroyers the navy's
bloodhounds during the war in 1971
cavalier reaffirmed this nickname in the
best manner possible on july the 6th
cavalier and another royal navy ship
frigate rapid put to sea
once or twice a year every ship
did what they call a full speed trial
two captains decided that um
to find out which ship
was the fastest
[Music]
so he laid down a challenge and it got
so well known about this challenge that
was going to take place that it even
appeared in bookies
you know the bookmakers
on betting
people were betting
to see who was gonna win
and uh they met up when they were due to
have this heist uh this high speed test
and then decided to make it a race
they were almost neck and neck because
the rapid was almost identical to this
to the cavalier she was the same hull
design wartime built same age
but she had been converted to a lighter
frigate
[Music]
they doing this race uh they were they
got up to about 33 knots 34 knots
and um
they were neck and neck for a long time
and then suddenly the oh they they
instructed the crew to go down aft and
stand on the quarter deck because to dig
the propellers in further
there was still neck and neck towards
the end of the race but the rapid then
blew a safety valve
she she blew this valve and lost
some of her power
and cavalier just managed to creep ahead
of her
only by about 20 yards
you know about 18 meters i think it was
something like that but she won anyway
[Music]
the race was run over 64 miles in two
hours and cavalier won by a very very
very small margin she was awarded the
of the fleet from the courage
brewery which you can still see today on
the open bridge of hms cavalier
[Music]
by the time cavalier immortalised her
name in the race against rapid she had
already served in the royal navy for 27
years in the mid-1950s the destroyer
underwent modernization in the 1950s and
1960s she mostly served in southeast
asia and the middle east taking part in
the events that reshaped the political
landscape in these regions in 1972 the
destroyer was decommissioned and could
have met the end of her career at a
scrapping yard however for the british
people the navy is more than just a
military branch that's why it was a
matter of national honor to preserve the
last destroyer of world war ii
[Music]
following a very long campaign to save
hms cavaliers she actually arrived here
in chatham in 1999 he's now birthed in
number two dock here at the historic
dockyard chatham but the dock itself has
a very interesting history in its own
right it's actually the dock that hms
victory uh was launched from in 1765
obviously famous for admiral lord nelson
and the battle of trafalgar
the last british destroyer of world war
ii is now the central piece of the
memorial located in chatham dockyard and
dedicated to destroyers and people who
perished in that war cavalier is
permanently birthed near the monument
upon which in a twist of fate she is not
mentioned she survived and now preserves
the memory of those who did not return
home
[Music]
you