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Allied Warships

HMS Lincoln (G 42)

Destroyer of the Town class


HMS Lincoln after a refit at the Charleston Navy Yard in 1943.

World Ship Photograph with thanks to Jan Visser.

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeDestroyer
ClassTown 
PennantG 42 
Built byWilliam Cramp and Sons (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) 
Ordered 
Laid down12 Feb, 1918 
Launched19 Jun, 1918 
Commissioned23 Oct, 1940 
End service26 Aug, 1944 
Loss position
 
HistoryUSS Yarnall was one of the 50 overage destroyers chosen to be turned over to the Royal Navy in return for the right to establish American bases on British territory in the western hemisphere. She proceeded to St. John's, Newfoundland, where she was decommissioned by the United States Navy on 23 October 1940, and, that same day, the Royal Navy commissioned her as HMS Lincoln (G 42).

The veteran destroyer departed St. John's on 3 November and arrived in Belfast, Northern Island, on the 9th. Lincoln moved from there to Londonderry where she was assigned to the First Escort Group, Western Approaches Command. For almost a year she met troop transport and cargo convoys in midocean and escorted them into ports in the British Isles. Between September 1941 and February 1942, the destroyer was refitted at Woolwich, England. At the conclusion of that overhaul, she was turned over to an Norwegian crew serving as HNoMS Lincoln (G 42)
and was sent back across the ocean to serve with the Western Local Escort Force, operating along the Newfoundland coast between Halifax and St. John's. In July 1942, HMS Lincoln became HMCS Lincoln when she was transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Canadian Navy though still manned by Norwegians. Her duty in Canadian waters continued until the end of 1943, at which time she recrossed the Atlantic. She departed Halifax on 19 December and arrived back in Londonderry on Christmas Day. Early in 1944, the venerable warship was placed in reserve in the Tyne River. Her service to the Allied cause, however, had not quite ended. On 26 August 1944, she was transferred to the Soviet Navy to be cannibalized to provide spare parts for eight of her sisters previously given to the Russians.

Commanding Officers:
Cdr. Alan MacGregor Sheffield, RN
23 October 1940 – February 1941

Lt. Ronald John Hanson, RN
February 1941 – Ca. October / November 1941

Lt. C.G.H. Brown, RN
??? - ???

HMS Lincoln was in Dockyard Control during refit before transfer to the Royal Norwegian Navy 

Former nameUSS Yarnall (DD 143)
Career notesto Soviet Union as USSR Druznyj

Noteable events involving Lincoln include:

20 May, 1941
At 21.24 hours on 20 May 1941, the British merchant Javanese Prince is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-138 155 nautical miles north-west of the Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides. One crew member was lost. The master, 45 crew members, eight gunners and four passengers were picked up by the British destroyers HMS Faulknor (Capt A.F. de Salis, RN), HMS Lincoln (Lt. R.J. Hanson, RN) and the British rescue tug HMRT Assurance (Sub.Lt. E.E. Litts). All survivors were transferred to the British rescue ship Toward and landed at Gourock on 28 May.


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