New destroyer visits spot where namesake sank

Sailors on board one of the Royal Navy’s newest warships have made a sea pilgrimage to the spot where their namesake ship sank during the Second World War.

By The Newsroom

Published 30th Jun 2012, 07:00 BST

The Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond visited the spot 60 miles north of Crete where the previous ship was attacked by German warplanes in 1941 with the loss of 148 lives.

Commanding officer Commander Ian Clarke took the opportunity to visit the site during Diamond’s maiden deployment after it set sail from its home base of Portsmouth earlier this month.

The wartime HMS Diamond was sunk as it attempted, along with HMS Wryneck, to pick up survivors from a Dutch troop ship, SS Slamat, which had come under attack. But all three ships were destroyed on April 27, 1941, by the Germans leading to the loss of 983 lives.