HMS Jamaica (44)

HMS Jamaica (44) History

Royal Navy Fiji-class cruiser HMS Jamaica is named after the island of Jamaica, which was a British Crown Colony when it was built in the 1930s. The light cruiser spent most of her wartime career in escort service in the Arctic, with the exception of her deployment to the South for North African landings in November 1942. She participated in the Battle of the Barents Sea in 1942 and the Battle of North Point in 1943.

Jamaica escorted several aircraft carriers in 1944 when they conducted airstrikes on the German battleship Tirpitz in northern Norway. At the end of the year, she underwent an overhaul to prepare her for service with the British Pacific Fleet, but the war ended before she could reach the Pacific.

Jamaica spent the late 1940s at stations in the Far East and North America and the West Indies. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, she was ordered to work with the U.S. Navy to bomb North Korean troops advancing toward the east coast. The ship also provided fire support during the Incheon landings later that year.

Jamaica was refitted later that year and returned to England in early 1951, where she was placed in reserve status.

She returned to service in 1954 with the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1955, Jamaica played the cruiser HMS Exeter in the film Battle of the River Plate, playing HMS Ajax alongside her war mate HMS Sheffield. In 1956, the ship took part in Operation Musketeer, the British and French invasion of Egypt to gain control of the Suez Canal.

Jamaica was paid off in 1958 and scrapped in 1960.

Specification

Basic

Year of Service

1942

Origins

UK

Status

stop service

destroyed, scrapped.

supplement

750

staff

Class information

Class

Royal Colony Rank

Class Size

11

ships

Class

Fiji Group: HMS Fiji (58); HMS Nigeria (60); HMS Mauritius (80); HMS Kenya (14); HMS Trinidad (46); Jamaica (44); HMS Gambia (48); HMS Bermuda (52) Ceylon Group: HMS Ceylon (30); Uganda (66); HMS Newfoundland (59)

Operators

UK

Characters

Sea Bombing

Maritime bombardment/attack of surface targets/areas primarily through ship-based ballistic weapons.

Land Assault

Littoral attacks against surface targets primarily through ship-based missiles/missile weapons.

Sea Patrol

Active patrolling of critical waterways and sea areas; also serves as a local deterrent against air and maritime threats.

Airspace Denial/Deterrence

Neutralization or deterrence of flying elements by airborne missile weapon ballistics.

Fleet Support

Provide support (fire or materiel) to major surface fleets in blue water environments.

Dimensions and Weight

Length

555.5ft

169.32m

Ray

62. 0 feet

18.90m

Draft

19.9 feet

6.07m

Shift

8,750 t

Power and Performance

Installed Power:

4 x Admiralty 3 barrel boiler units power 4 x 80,000hp Parsons geared steam turbines on 4 x shafts below the stern.

Surface Velocity

32.3

(37.1 km/h)

Area

6,257nm

(7,200 miles | 11,587 km)

Weapon

12 x 6 in (152 mm) main gun, four triple main turrets. 8 x 4 in (102 mm) anti-aircraft guns (AA) in four dual-armed secondary turrets. 8 x 2lb (40mm) anti-aircraft guns mounted on two quad mounts. 2 x 21" (533 mm) triple torpedo tubes.

Planes

2 x Supermarine Sea Otter salvage seaplanes.