HMS Gravelines (D24) was a
Battle-class destroyer of the
Royal
Navy. She was named after the
Battle of Gravelines, which took place
in 1588, resulting in the English Navy defeating the
Spanish Armada.
Gravelines
was built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead
. She was launched on 30 November 1944 and
commissioned on 14 June 1946.
Upon commission,
Gravelines was placed in Reserve along
with a number of her other sister-ships. In 1949,
Gravelines joined the
3rd Destroyer Flotilla, which joined
the
Mediterranean Fleet.
Gravelines exchanged crews with
HMS St Kitts on 10 March 1953
and returned to the UK where she was paid off into the Reserve
Fleet.
In 1955,
Gravelines, with the rest of the 3rd Flotilla, returned
once again to the Mediterranean, and was in the area during the
Suez Crisis, which had occurred in
response to the Egyptian President Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal
. That same year,
Gravelines
returned to a colder climate, when she, along with the rest of the
Flotilla, joined the
Home Fleet, based in
the UK. In 1957,
Gravelines began a refit, though it was
cancelled the following year. In 1961,
Gravelines was
scrapped.