HMS Jupiter (F85)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Jupiter.

300px Jupiter in August 1940, with the destroyer Kashmir in the background
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Jupiter
Builder:	Yarrow & Company
Laid down:	28 September 1937
Launched:	27 October 1938
Commissioned:	25 June 1939
Identification:	pennant number:F85
Fate:	Struck a mine and sank, 27 February 1942
General characteristics (as built)
Class & type:	J-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,690 long tons (1,720 t) (standard) 2,330 long tons (2,370 t) (deep load)
Length:	356 ft 6 in (108.66 m) o/a
Beam:	35 ft 9 in (10.90 m)
Draught:	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (deep)
Installed power:	44,000 shp (33,000 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:	183 (218 for flotilla leaders)
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC
Armament:	3 × twin QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns 1 × quadruple QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns 2 × quadruple QF 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) Mk III anti-aircraft machineguns 2 × quintuple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 × rack, 2 × throwers

HMS Jupiter was a J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy.

Construction and design

Jupiter was ordered, along with the rest of the J class, on 25 March 1937, and was laid down by Yarrow, Limited, at their Scotstoun, Glasgow shipyard on Clydebank in Scotland on 28 September 1937 and launched on 27 October 1938. She was commissioned on 22 June 1939, and was completed on 25 June 1939, at a cost of £389,511.

As completed, Jupiter had a main gun armament of six 4.7-inch (119 mm) QF Mark XII guns in three twin mountings, two forward and one aft. These guns could only elevate to an angle of 40 degrees, and so were of limited use in the anti-aircraft role, while the aft mount was arranged so that it could fire forwards over the ship's superstructure to maximise the forward firing firepower, but was therefore incapable of firing directly aft. A short range anti-aircraft armament of a four-barrelled 2 pounder "pom-pom" anti-aircraft mount and eight .50 in machine guns in two quadruple mounts was fitted, while torpedo armament consisted of ten 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in two quintuple mounts.

Operations

4.7-inch gun onboard Jupiter firing on enemy shipping in the port of Cherbourg, 10/11 October 1940.

After commissioning, Jupiter underwent sea trials and worked up at Portland, with these activities being delayed by problems with the ship's turbines that required repair at Devonport Dockyard. Jupiter completed trials on 1 September 1939, and joined the 7th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet, based on the Humber, in time for the British declaration of war on 3 September 1939.

On 29 November 1941, Jupiter and the destroyer Encounter detached from the Mediterranean Fleet, joined up with Force G at Colombo, and the five ships sailed later that day. They rendezvoused with the battlecruiser Repulse at sea, and set course for Singapore, where they arrived on 2 December. They spent a few days there with shore leave and refit, while waiting for orders. On 1 December, it was announced that Sir Tom Phillips had been promoted to full Admiral, and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet. A few days later, Repulse started on a trip to Australia with the destroyers Vampire and Tenedos, but the force was recalled. It was not until nine days later that Tenedos and Repulse would join Phillips' Force Z in attacking the Japanese invasion force, and he himself would perish when both Repulse and the battleship Prince of Wales were bombed and sunk by Japanese land based bombers.

Jupiter sank the Japanese submarine I-60 on 17 January 1942. Jupiter, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Norman V. J. T. Thew, RN, struck a mine as she steamed with the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA) cruiser force during the Battle of the Java Sea. She was sunk off the north Java coast in the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, at 2116 hours, by a mine laid earlier in the day by the Dutch minelayer Gouden Leeuw. Initially, the explosion was thought to have been caused by a Japanese torpedo.

The wreck has been plotted, and is described by the Admiralty as "very broken up, partly salvaged, and very close to the Java coast".

External links

• Pacific Wrecks: HMS Jupiter (F85)
• HMS Jupiter Association