In 2005 a miniature sheet of 5 stamps, showing warships (HMS KING GEORGE V, HMS
WOLVERINE, USS MISSOURI, USS YORKTOWN and BISMARCK), was issued under the name
of the Republic of Congo. In the margins of the sheet are line drawings of 3
further warships – HMS BLACK PRINCE, HMS EURYALUS & IJS KUMANO.
Name: HMS Black Prince
Builder: Harland & Wolff (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Laid down: 1 December 1939
Launched: 27 August 1942
Commissioned: 30 November 1943
Decommissioned: March 1962
Out of service: Loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy, 25 May 1946
Renamed: HMNZS BLACK PRINCE
Returned to Royal Navy control on 1 April 1961
Fate: Sold for scrap in March 1962, arrived at Mitsui & Company, Osaka breakage
yards, Japan, on 2 May 1962 for breaking up
Displacement: 5,950 tons standard
7,200 tons full load
Length: 485 ft (148 m) pp
512 feet (156 m) oa
Beam: 50.5 ft (15.4 m)
Draught: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion: Parsons geared turbines
Four shafts
Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers
62,000 shp (46 MW)
Speed: 32.25 knots (60 km/h)
Range: 2,414 km (1,500 miles) at 30 knots
6,824 km (4,240 miles) at 16 knots
1,100 tons fuel oil
Complement: 530
Armament: Original configuration:
8 x 5.25 in (133 mm) dual guns
6 x 20 mm dual AA guns
3 x 2 pdr (37 mm/40 mm) pom-poms quad guns
2 x 21 in (533 mm) triple Torpedo Tubes Early 1945 - Mid 1946 configuration:
8 × 5.25 in (133 mm) (4 × 2)
12 × 2 pdr (1.5 in) pom-poms (3 × 4)
24 × 20 mm AA (8 × 2, 8 × 1)
6 × 21 in (533 mm) Torpedo Tubes (2 × 3)
Armor: Original configuration:
Belt: 3 inch
Deck: 1 inch
Magazines: 2 inch
Bulkheads: 1 inch
Operational History
Royal Navy
After commissioning, Black Prince served on Arctic convoys and then came south
in preparation for the invasion of Europe, being employed on offensive sweeps
against German coastal convoy traffic. On the night of 25 and 26 April 1944,
accompanied by destroyers, she was involved in the action which sank the torpedo
boat T29 and damaged T24 and T27 off the north Brittany coast.
During the Normandy landings, she was part of Force "A" of Task Force 125 in
support of Utah Beach. Task Force 125 at this time consisted of the battleship
USS Nevada, the cruisers USS Quincy, USS Tuscaloosa, Black Prince, the monitor
HMS Erebus and several destroyers and destroyer escorts. Black Prince's target
was the battery at Morsalines. In August, she moved to the Mediterranean for the
invasion of Southern France.She was then sent to Aegean waters in September
1944. On 8 September, Black Prince arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, where she was
ordered to sweep the area around Scarpanto and the Gulf of Salonica. On one
occasion she bombarded the airfield at Maleme on the island of Crete to prevent
German aircraft from taking off.
On 21 November 1944, Black Prince left Alexandria, passed through the Suez Canal
into the Red Sea and then on into the Indian Ocean. She arrived at Colombo in
Ceylon on 30 November to join the East Indies Fleet where she covered the
aircraft carrier raids against Japanese oil installations and airfields in
Sumatra and Malaya (Operation Meridian).
On 16 January 1945, she sailed as part of the British Pacific Fleet, seeing
action off Okinawa and in the final bombardments of the Japanese mainland before
withdrawing to repossess Hong Kong in September.
Royal New Zealand Navy
After the Japanese surrender, she remained in the Far East, and was transferred
to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 25 May 1946. During 1947, the cruiser was
docked for modernisation, but this was cancelled following a series of mutinies
in April (which included the sailors from Black Prince), as the RNZN no longer
had the manpower to operate her. Black Prince was placed in reserve. Work on
reactivating the ship began in January 1952, and she was recommissioned in
February 1953. The cruiser was decommissioned again in August 1955, and reverted
to Royal Navy control, still in an un-modernised condition on 1 April 1961.
She was sold for scrap in March 1962 and towed from Auckland on 5 April to the
Mitsui & Company breakers yard at Osaka, Japan, by the tug Benten Maru, arriving
there on 2 May 1962.
Congo 2005 In margin of sheet.
Ref: Wikipedia
Peter Crichton