HMS Ness (1942)

History
United Kingdom
Name	Ness
Namesake	Ness
Ordered	11 February 1941
Builder	Henry Robb Ltd
Laid down	3 September 1941
Launched	30 July 1942
Commissioned	22 December 1942
Fate	Sold for scrap in September 1956
General characteristics
Class & type	River-class frigate
Displacement	1,370 long tons (1,390 t) 1,830 long tons (1,860 t) (deep load)
Length	283 ft (86.26 m) p/p 301.25 ft (91.82 m)o/a
Beam	36.5 ft (11.13 m)
Draught	9 ft (2.74 m); 13 ft (3.96 m) (deep load)
Propulsion	2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp (4,100 kW)
Speed	20 knots (37.0 km/h)
Range	7,200 nautical miles (13,334 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h), with 440 long tons (450 t; 490 short tons) of oil
Complement	107
Armament	2 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk.XIX guns, single mounts CP Mk.XXIII up to 10 × QF 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns on twin mounts Mk.V and single mounts Mk.III 1 × Hedgehog 24 spigot A/S projector up to 150 depth charges

HMS Ness at sea 4 February 1943

HMS Ness (K219) was a River-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). Ness was built by Henry Robb, Limited in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Leith docks for the Royal Navy. She served during World War II. ^[1]

Ness was one of 151 River-class frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts, named after rivers in the United Kingdom. The ships were designed by naval engineer William Reed, of Smith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees, to have the endurance and anti-submarine capabilities of the Black Swan-class sloops, while being quick and cheap to build in civil dockyards using the machinery (e.g. reciprocating steam engines instead of turbines) and construction techniques pioneered in the building of the Flower-class corvettes. Its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with the Royal Navy at the time, including the Flower class.

On 23 May 1943, while escorting a convoy about 350 miles (560 km) west of Portugal's north coast Ness and HMS Active sighted a surfaced submarine and closed to attack. After several depth charge runs multiple explosions were heard on deck, and debris was seen surfacing in the ocean. Later it was learned that the Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci, the most successful Italian submarine of the war, had been sunk along with all crew. ^{[2] [3]}

References

1. "HMS Ness". Uboat.net. Uboat.net. Retrieved 11 January 2026.
2. "HMS Ness". Uboat.net. Uboat.net. Retrieved 11 January 2026.
3. Chen, Peter. "Black May". World War 2 Database. Retrieved 11 January 2026.

External links

• Kindell, Don. "World War 2 at Sea – Convoy Escort Movements of Royal and Dominion Navy Vessels". naval-history.net.
• Hague, Arnold. "Arnold Hague Convoy Database". convoyweb.org.uk.