HMS Scorpion (G72)

HMS Scorpion in June 1944
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Scorpion
Ordered	9 January 1941
Builder	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down	19 June 1941
Launched	26 August 1942
Commissioned	11 May 1943
Decommissioned	16 August 1945
Identification	Pennant number: G72
Motto	Finem espice - Look to the end
Honours and awards	Arctic 1943-44 North Cape 1943 Normandy 1944
Fate	Sold to the Dutch in October 1945
Badge	On a Field barry wavy of six white and blue, a scorpion gold.
Netherlands
Name	HNLMS Kortenaar
Acquired	October 1945
Reclassified	Frigate, 1957
Identification	D804 and later F812
Fate	Scrapped 1963
General characteristics
Class and type	S-class destroyer
Displacement	1,730 tons (standard)
Length	363 ft (111 m)
Beam	35 ft (11 m)
Draught	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion	Two sets of Parsons geared turbines 40,000 hp (30,000 kW)
Speed	36.75 knots (68.06 km/h; 42.29 mph)
Complement	225
Armament	4 × 4.7-inch (120-mm) QF Mk IX guns (4×1) 2 × 40mm Bofors (1x2) 8 × 20 mm guns anti-aircraft guns 8 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×4)

HMS Scorpion was an S-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, the eleventh of her name, commissioned on 11 May 1943. Initially she was to be named Sentinel, but this was changed following the loss of the Dragonfly-class river gunboat Scorpion in the Bangka Strait in February 1942.^[1] She served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, mostly in the Arctic Ocean, and fought in the Battle of North Cape. She was sold to the Netherlands in 1945 and scrapped in 1963.