HMS Mahratta

History
HMS Mahratta at a buoy
United Kingdom
Name:	*HMS Mahratta* (Ex-HMS Marksman)**
Builder:	Scotts, Greenock
Yard number:	584
Laid down:	18 August 1941
Launched:	28 July 1942
Commissioned:	8 April 1943
Honours and awards:	Arctic (1943–44)
Fate:	Sunk by U-990, 25 February 1944
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	M-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,920 long tons (1,950 t) (standard) 2,725 long tons (2,769 t) (deep load)
Length:	362 ft 3 in (110.4 m) (o/a)
Beam:	37 ft (11.3 m)
Draught:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power:	48,000 shp (36,000 kW) 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range:	5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	190
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC Type 285 gunnery radar Type 290 air warning radar
Armament:	3 × twin 4.7 in (120 mm) Mk XI dual-purpose guns 1 × single QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk V anti-aircraft gun 1 × quadruple QF 2-pdr (40 mm) Mk VIII AA guns 2 × single Oerlikon 20 mm (0.8 in) AA guns 2 × quadruple, 2 × twin 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers Mark III anti-aircraft machineguns 1 × quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 42 × depth charges, 2 × racks, 2 × throwers

HMS Mahratta was an M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which served during World War II. Begun as Marksman, she was damaged while under construction, and dismantled to be rebuilt on a new slipway. She was launched as Mahratta in 1942, completed in 1943, and quickly pressed into service. After a short but busy career in the North Atlantic and Arctic, largely guarding merchant convoys, she was torpedoed and sunk on 25 February 1944.

Mahratta was originally to have been named Marksman. She was laid down on 21 January 1940 but the incomplete ship was blown off the slipway during an air raid in May 1941.Marksman was to have been the lead ship of the M-class destroyers, and the class was sometimes known as the Marksman class. Damage sustained by Marksman was so bad that she had to be dismantled and transferred to an alternative site. The new ship was laid down on 18 August 1941, but she was renamed Mahratta at her launch in July 1942, after the Maratha Empire of India, as a recognition of the financial support given by India to the war effort.Mahratta was adopted by the people of Walsall, who held a "Warship Week" from 7–14 February 1942, aiming to raise £700,000 – the cost of a warship. She was completed on 8 April 1943 and entered service on that date. During trials in May 1943 HMS Mahratta escorted RMS Queen Mary part way across the Atlantic.

HMS Mahratta departed Scapa Flow on 2 June 1943 with HMS Musketeer and HMS Onslaught, arriving back at Scapa Flow the same day. On 4 June Mahratta left Seidisfjord, Iceland bound for Spitsbergen, Norway as part of Operation FH, which was the relief of the garrison at Spitsbergen.

HMS Mahratta departed Scapa Flow on 8 June 1943 for Kola Inlet

In July 1943, HMS Mahratta and HMS Musketeer waited in Iceland for ice to clear before making a high speed run to Murmansk. Amongst her valuable cargo was a bathtub for an admiral.

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Wikipedia