 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "HMS Lagan" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Lagan in 1943. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Lagan |
| Namesake | River Lagan |
| Builder | Smiths Dock Co.,South Bank-on-Tees |
| Laid down | 7 January 1942 |
| Launched | 28 July 1942 |
| Commissioned | 21 December 1942 |
| Fate | Badly damaged byU-270, 20 September 1943. Declared a loss on 24th, and sold for scrap in 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | River-classfrigate |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | |
| 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 | 440long tons (450 t; 490 short tons) oil fuel; 7,200 nautical miles (13,334 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h) |
| Complement | 107 |
| Armament |
|
HMSLagan (K259) was aRiver-classfrigate of theRoyal Navy (RN).Lagan was built to the RN's specifications as a Group II River-class frigate. She served in theNorth Atlantic duringWorld War II.
As a River-class frigate,Lagan was one of151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use asanti-submarine convoy escorts, named after rivers in theUnited Kingdom. The ships were designed by naval engineer William Reed, ofSmith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees, to have the endurance and anti-submarine capabilities of theBlack Swan-classsloops, 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 theFlower-classcorvettes. Its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with theRoyal Navy at the time, including the Flower class.
After commissioning in December 1942,Lagan served in convoy escort missions and participated in anti-submarine warfare exercises offLough Foyle. On 12 May 1942,Lagan, withHMS Biter andHMS Broadway, sank theGerman submarine U-89. The next day,Lagan andHMCS Drumheller sankU-753.[1]
WhilstLagan was part ofConvoy ON 202, she was attacked byU-270. At 04:57 on 20 September 1943, aGNAT torpedo struck the stern ofLagan, causing critical damage to the ship and 29 dead. She was towed by the tugboatHMS Destiny toMersey, arriving on 24 September, whereLagan was declared aconstructive total loss. The wreck was sold for scrap inTroon on 21 May 1946.[2][3][4]
