HMS Zenith

Last updated April 05, 2019

HMS Zenith has been the name of more than one ship of the British Royal Navy, and may refer to:

Zenith, a drifter considered for service but acquisition cancelled in 1919
HMS Wessex (R78), originally named HMS Zenith but renamed in January 1943 prior to completion, a destroyer in commission from 1944 to 1946
HMS Zenith (R95), originally named HMS Wessex but renamed in January 1943 prior to completion, a destroyer in commission from 1944 to 1947

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.

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.

The name "HMS Zenith" also was given to a shore establishment, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Division at Southampton, England, in 1946.

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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