HMS Quality (G62)

Quality was one of eight Q-class destroyers constructed as a flotilla under the War Emergency Programme.[1] These ships had a standard displacement of 1,705 tons, and a deep load displacement of 2,424 tons.[1] They were 358 feet 3 inches (109.19 m) long overall, and 339 feet 6 inches (103.48 m) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 35 feet 8 inches (10.87 m).[1] Propulsion was provided by two Admiralty 3-drum boilers connected to Parsons Impulse turbines, which generated 40,000 shaft horsepower (30,000 kW) for the propeller shafts.[1] The destroyers had a maximum speed of 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph), and a range of 4,680 nautical miles (8,670 km; 5,390 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).[1] The ship's company consisted of 8 officers and 181 sailors.[1]

Main armament consisted of four QF 4.7 inch Mk IX guns in single turrets.[1] This was supplemented by a quadruple 2-pounder pom-pom, and six 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. Four depth-charge throwers were fitted, with a payload of 70 charges carried, and two quadruple 21-inch torpedo tube sets were fitted, although a maximum of eight torpedoes were carried.[1]

Quality was laid down by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited at their Wallsend-on-Tyne shipyard on 10 October 1940.[1] The destroyer was launched by the wife of the shipyard overseer on 6 October 1941.[1] The destroyer was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 7 September 1942.[1][2] Although commissioned as a Royal Navy vessel, a large portion of the ship's company were on loan from the RAN.[3] Like all ships in the class, Quality was given a name starting with "Q": the ship's badge depicts an ingot of gold stamped with the Hallmarks of Quality from the assay offices at London and Edinburgh.[3]

Quality paid off into reserve on 25 January 1946, 59 days after commissioning.[3] The destroyer was to be converted into an anti-submarine frigate: to facilitate this, Quality and her four sister ships were gifted to the RAN in May 1950.[6] Quality was designated as the last of the five ships to undergo the conversion.[7] While waiting for conversion, the destroyer underwent refits in 1948 and 1950, and had to be docked for repairs to her hull in 1954.[7] On 14 August 1956, one of the reserve fleet shipkeepers noticed that Quality was sitting lower in the water than normal.[7] It was discovered that the hull had become corroded at the waterline, with the ship taking on water.[7] Quality underwent an emergency dry docking that day at Garden Island, with the superstructure cut off to increase the ship's freeboard.[7]

The deterioration of the ship while waiting for modernisation, combined with post-World War II reductions in RAN personnel numbers, the increases in both time and cost for the other four Q-class conversions, and the need for the RAN to cut back spending in order to support the navy's new aircraft carriers, meant that the conversion of Quality was cancelled and the ship was marked for disposal.[7][8] Quality was sold for scrap to the Mitsubishi Company of Japan on 10 April 1958 for breaking up as scrap.[7] The ship's bell was donated to a school in Nowra, New South Wales.[3]

• Cassells, Vic (2000). The Destroyers: their battles and their badges. East Roseville, NSW: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7318-0893-2. OCLC 46829686.
• Raven, Alan; Roberts, John (1978). War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. London: Bivouac Books. ISBN 0-85680-010-4.
• Stevens, David; Sears, Jason; Goldrick, James; Cooper, Alastair; Jones, Peter; Spurling, Kathryn (2001). Stevens, David (ed.). The Royal Australian Navy. The Australian Centenary History of Defence (vol III). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-555542-2. OCLC 50418095.
• Weaver, Trevor (1994). Q class Destroyers and Frigates of the Royal Australian Navy. Garden Island, NSW: Naval History Society of Australia. ISBN 0-9587456-3-3. OCLC 33162899.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.