The class was built first with two masts, and the stamp depict HMS EXMOOR with two mast, later the aftermast was removed most probably to improve the arches of the fire of the 2pdr. pom-pom. The later Hunt class was built with one mast.
There were two Hunt class destroyers under the name EXMOOR, after EXMOOR sank in 1941 HMS BURTON was renamed EXMOOR, and she already was one of the later Hunt class vessel, which were built with only one mast.
She must be the first built EXMOOR, which was one of the first built of this class.
Built as a destroyer under job No J4099 by Vickers-Armstrong, Newcastle-on-Tyne for the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 2 March 1939
08 June 1939 laid down.
25 Jan. 1940 launched as HMS EXMOOR (L61). One of the Hunt Class type I destroyers.
Displacement 890 ton standard, 1.185 ton fully loaded. Dim. 278 x 28.3 x 7.11ft (light draught).
Powered by geared Parsons steam turbines, 19.000hp., and twin shafts.
Range 2.500 miles against 15 knots.
Armament 6 – 4 inch, two machine guns, two depth charge throwers.
Crew between 142 and 144 men.
01 Nov. 1940 completed. Building cost without armament £284.630.
After completing steamed to Scapa Flow for a work-up period, but it was interrupted by the need to undertake urgent escort duties.
Her first escort duty was when she together with the HMS PYTCHLEY escorted the ADDA from 06 Nov. till 13 Nov. 1940 from the U.K. to the Faeroe Islands.
Then she escorted the AMC’s CHITRAL and SALOPIAN to join the Northern Patrol.
December 1940 she escorted the battleship QUEEN ELIZABETH from Portsmouth to Rosyth to complete her reconstruction.
Then she joined the 16th Destroyer Flotilla based at Harwich.
25 Feb. 1941 she sailed from Harwich under command of Lt. Cdr. R.T. Lampard as an additional escort for convoy FN417 that was underway from the Thames to the Firth of Forth.
The same day she was attacked by a flotilla of German torpedo boats and at 21.15 she was sunk by a torpedo fired by the German motor torpedo boat S-30 off Lowestoff in position 52 29N 01 50E.
The explosion was so heavy that her hull was split, causing severe internal damage.
The oil fuel, which had been sprayed over the after-end by the explosion, ignited and the afterpart of the vessel was soon engulfed in flames spreading rapidly forward.
She got a list to port, finally capsized and sank in 10 minutes, taken with them 4 officers under which her commanding officer and 100 men.
Her survivors were rescued by the patrol vessel SHEARWATER and the trawler COMMANDER EVANS and were subsequently landed at Yarmouth.
Not any other ship in the convoy suffered any damage.
St Helena 2000 30p sg?, scott?.
Gibraltar 1989 32p sg618, scott 554 (badge only)
Source: http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4619.html The Hunts by John English.
Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of Steam by Charles Hocking.