HMS Wessex

Last updated December 16, 2021

Four ships of the Royal Navy, and a division of the Royal Naval Reserve have borne the name HMS Wessex, after the historical Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex:

HMS Wessex (D43) was an Admiralty W-class destroyer launched in 1918 and sunk in 1940 in an air attack off Calais.
HMS Wessex was to have been a Z-class destroyer, but was renamed HMS Zenith prior to launch.
HMS Wessex (R78) was a W-class destroyer, previously named HMS Zenith, but renamed prior to launching in 1943. She was transferred to the South African Navy in 1950 and renamed SAS Jan van Riebeeck. She was decommissioned in 1975, and sunk as a target in 1980.
HMS Wessex was the Southampton base of the Royal Naval Reserve, established after the Second World War and closed in 1994. In addition, two ships that served at different times as tenders to the base were also known as HMS Wessex:
- HMS Derg, a River-class frigate, was HMS Wessex between 1951 and 1954.
- HMS Erne, a Black Swan-class sloop was HMS Wessex between 1952 and 1965.

This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.

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The W and Z class was a class of sixteen destroyers of the Royal Navy launched in 1943–1944. They were constructed as two flotillas, with names beginning with "W-" and "Z-", respectively, although, like the preceding U and V class, two of the flotilla leaders were named after historical naval figures. They were known as the 9th and 10th Emergency Flotilla, respectively and served as fleet and convoy escorts in World War II. None were lost during World War II but INS Eilat was sunk during the Israel-Egypt conflict in October 1967 by Egyptian missile boats and the El Qaher of the Egyptian Navy was sunk at Berenice, Egypt on 16 May 1970 by Israeli Air Force aircraft during the War of Attrition.

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HMS Wessex was one of eight W-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1944, the ship spent most of the war assigned to the Eastern and Pacific Fleets. She screened British aircraft carriers as their aircraft attacked targets in the Japanese-occupied Nicobar Islands, the Dutch East Indies and Okinawa.

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HMS Fittleton, originally named HMS Curzon, was a wooden-hulled Ton-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy which spent most of her career in the Royal Naval Reserve. She was sunk in a collision with HMS Mermaid on 20 September 1976 whilst en route to Hamburg for an official visit. Twelve naval service personnel lost their lives, making this the worst peacetime accident involving the Royal Naval Reserve.

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The first HMS Wessex (D43) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and the early months of World War II.

HMS Zenith was a Z-class destroyer of the Royal Navy built as by William Denny and Brothers, Dunbarton. She was ordered as part of the 10th Emergency Flotilla, and was originally to have been named HMS Wessex. She spent her first ten years in Royal Navy service, before being sold to the Egyptian Navy, which operated her as El Fateh. She was a training ship until 2014, and her name was transferred to a new vessel in 2017, but she remains listed by the IISS.

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