HMAS Stuart (formerly HMS Stuart) was a British Scott-class flotilla leader. The ship was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company for the Royal Navy during World War I, and entered service at the end of 1918. The majority of the destroyer's British service was performed in the Mediterranean, and in 1933 she was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy. Although placed in reserve in 1938, Stuart was reactivated at the start of World War II to lead the Australian destroyer force, nicknamed the "Scrap Iron Flotilla" by German propagandists.
The flotilla operated in the Mediterranean, with Stuart participating in the Western Desert Campaign and the battles of Calabria and Cape Matapan, defeating the Italian submarine Gondar, evacuating Allied troops from Greece and Crete, and serving with the Tobruk Ferry Service. The destroyer returned to Australia for repairs and refit in late 1941, and spent most of 1942 and 1943 in Australian waters. Stuart was modified into a stores and troop transport in early 1944, and operated in this role around Australia and New Guinea until early 1946. Stuart was placed in reserve in 1946, and was sold for ship breaking in early 1947.
Design and construction
Stuart was one of nine Admiralty-type (or Scott-class) flotilla leaders constructed during World War I for the Royal Navy. The ship had a displacement of 1,530 tons standard and 2,053 tons at full load. She was long overall and long between perpendiculars, with a beam of , and a draught of at full load. The propulsion machinery consisted of four Yarrow boilers feeding two Brown-Curtis turbines, which delivered to the two propeller shafts. Although designed with a maximum speed of , Stuart could reach on the measured mile during trials. Maximum range was at . The ship's company initially consisted of 183 personnel, but by 1936 had decreased to 167: 11 officers and 156 sailors.
As originally designed, the ship's main armament consisted of five BL 4.7 inch /45 naval guns, which were augmented by a 3-inch gun for anti-aircraft defence. When Stuart entered RAN service in 1933, the ship's armament consisted of five BL 4.7 inch /45 naval guns, a QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun, two QF 2-pounder naval guns (known as pom-poms), five .303 inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), six 21-inch torpedo tubes (in two triple mountings), two depth charge chutes, and four depth charge throwers. By 1941, two of the 4.7-inch guns had been removed, five 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and a Breda gun had been fitted, and the depth charge chutes were replaced with depth charge rails. A year later, a third 4.7-inch gun was removed, along with two of the Oerlikons, the .303-inch guns, the Breda gun, and the torpedo tube sets. During 1942, a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar was installed. When Stuart was converted into a storesship and troop transport in 1944, her armament was changed to a single 4-inch gun, seven Oerlikons, three quad-barelled pom-poms, a Hedgehog, and a payload of depth charges.
Stuart was laid down by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at their shipyard in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 18 October 1917, and was launched on 22 August 1918. Stuart was one of only four ships in her class to launch before the end of World War I. The destroyer was completed on 21 December 1918 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on the same day. The ship's name comes from the royal House of Stuart, and the badge design depicts a Stuart royal crown and a Yorkshire rose: the Scottish Stuarts' claim to the English throne came from their descent from Edward IV of the House of York.