Shipwreck Monday-HMAS Vampire

 

 

The ship was laid down as HMS Wallace by J. Samuel White & Co Ltd at Cowes on 10 October 1916. She was launched on 21 May 1917. In July 1917, HMS Wallace was renamed Vampire, and was commissioned into the Royal Navy (RN) on 22 September 1917.

 

HMAS Vampire (D68/I68) was a V class destroyer of the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Vampire was loaned to the RAN in 1933, and operated as a depot tender until just before World War II. Reactivated for war service, the destroyer served in the Mediterranean as part of the Scrap Iron Flotilla, and was escorting the British warships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse during their loss to Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea in December 1941. Vampire was sunk on 9 April 1942 by Japanese aircraft while sailing with the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes from Trincomalee.