HMS Hasty ( H24 ) HMS " Hasty " ( H24 ) was an H - class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the mid - 1930s . She was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until the beginning of World War II . The ship transferred to Freetown , Sierra Leone , in October 1939 to hunt for German commerce raiders in the South Atlantic with Force K . " Hasty " returned to the British Isles in early 1940 and covered the evacuation of Allied troops from Namsos in early May 1940 during the Norwegian Campaign . She was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet shortly afterwards and participated in the Battle of Calabria and the Battle of Cape Spada in July 1940 . The ship took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March and evacuated British and Australian troops from both Greece and Crete in April and May . In June , " Hasty " participated in the Syria - Lebanon Campaign and was escorting convoys and the larger ships of the Mediterranean Fleet for the next year . During the Second Battle of Sirte in March 1942 she defended a convoy from an Italian battleship and several cruisers . While covering another convoy from Alexandria to Malta in June 1942 during Operation Vigorous , " Hasty " was torpedoed by a German motor torpedo boat and was so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled . Description . " Hasty " displaced at standard load and at deep load . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines , driving two shafts , which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3 - drum water - tube boilers . " Hasty " carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ship ' s complement was 137 officers and men in peacetime , but this increased to 146 in wartime . The ship mounted four 45 - calibre 4 . 7 - inch ( 120 mm ) Mark IX guns in single mounts . For anti - aircraft ( AA ) defence , " Hasty " had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0 . 5 inch Vickers Mark III machine gun . She was fitted with two above - water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for torpedoes . One depth charge rail and two throwers were fitted ; 20 depth charges were originally carried , but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began . Beginning in mid - 1940 , the ship ' s anti - aircraft armament was increased , although when exactly the modifications were made is not known . The rear set of torpedo tubes was replaced by a ( 12 - pounder ) AA gun and the quadruple . 50 - calibre Vickers mounts were replaced by Oerlikon autocannon . Two more Oerlikon guns were also added in the forward superstructure . Service . " Hasty " was laid down by William Denny and Brothers , of Dumbarton in Scotland on 15 April 1935 , launched on 5 May 1936 and completed on 11 November 1936 . Excluding government - furnished equipment like the armament , the ship cost £248 , 611 . She was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet upon commissioning . " Hasty " was refitted in Devonport Dockyard in June – July 1939 and she returned to the Mediterranean afterwards . " Hasty " escorted convoys between Port Said , Egypt and Gibraltar immediately after World War II began in September . In October the ship was transferred to Freetown to hunt for German commerce raiders in the South Atlantic with Force K . The ship and her sisters , , , and , rendezvoused with the battlecruiser , the aircraft carrier , and the light cruiser on 17 December . They refuelled in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , before proceeding to the estuary of the River Plate in case the damaged German pocket battleship attempted to escape from Montevideo , Uruguay , where she had taken refuge after losing the Battle of the River Plate . " Hasty " was ordered to the UK in January 1940 to refit and captured the German blockade runner SS " Morea " in the North Atlantic on 12 February en route . The ship was assigned to the Home Fleet after completing her refit in March . Together with the destroyer , " Hasty " escorted the destroyer into Newcastle upon Tyne on 19 – 20 March after the latter ship had collided with a Swedish merchant ship in the North Sea . Weather damage prevented the ship from participating in the early stages of the Norwegian Campaign , but she escorted the aircraft carriers and " Ark Royal " from 21 April as their aircraft attacked German targets in Norway . " Hasty " was one of " Glorious " s escorts when the carrier returned to Scapa Flow to refuel on 27 April . Two days later , the ship escorted the convoy that evacuated British and French troops from Namsos in early May . " Hasty " and the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla were ordered to the Mediterranean on 16 May , and the ship escorted the and three British cruisers as they bombarded Bardia during the night of 20 / 21 June . On 9 July " Hasty " participated in the Battle of Calabria as an escort for the heavy ships of Force C and unsuccessfully engaged Italian destroyers and suffered no damage . During the Battle of Cape Spada on 19 July , the ship escorted Australian light cruiser and rescued some 525 survivors from the together with the other escorting destroyers . " Hasty " and her sister sank the on 2 October off the coast of Egypt and rescued 47 survivors between them . The ship escorted the carrier during the Battle of Taranto on the night of 11 / 12 November . During the bombardment of Valona , Albania , on the night of 18 / 19 December , " Hasty " escorted the battleships and . The ship participated in Operation Excess in January 1941 , during which she escorted a convoy and then escorted the battleship from Souda Bay , Crete to Alexandria . In late February , the ship evacuated British commandos from the island of Kastelorizo , off the coast of Turkey , in the Italian Dodecanese . The commandos had defeated the small garrison in Operation Abstention , but the Italians were able to land troops on the island over the next several days and overwhelm the British forces . During the Battle of Cape Matapan on 28 / 29 March , " Hasty " escorted the four light cruisers of Force B , but was not seriously engaged during the battle . On 15 April the ship and the light cruiser bombarded Italian positions between Bardia and Fort Capuzzo . In mid - April she escorted the fast transport and three battleships from Alexandria to Malta , before going on to escort the battleships as they bombarded Tripoli on 20 April . After refuelling in Alexandria on 23 April , " Hasty " sailed for Greece to begin evacuating British and Australian troops from the beaches . On 8 May , the ship again escorted the capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they covered another convoy from Alexandria to Malta . " Hasty " escorted the light cruisers and as they intercepted a German convoy attempting to land troops on Crete during the night of 21 / 22 May . The ship evacuated British and Commonwealth troops from Crete in late May . " Hasty " bombarded Vichy French positions in Lebanon on 4 July during the Syria - Lebanon Campaign , and then spent most of the rest of the year escorting convoys to Tobruk . On 25 November she was escorting the capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet when the battleship " Barham " was torpedoed and sunk by . While escorting a convoy , " Hasty " and her sister , , sank on 23 December north of Sollum . In January 1942 , the ship escorted Convoys MF . 3 and MF . 4 from Alexandria to Malta , but was switched to the covering force for Convoy MF . 5 in mid - February . She was transferred to the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla on 24 February " Hasty " was escorting the merchants ships of Convoy MW . 10 when the Second Battle of Sirte began on 22 March , but defended the convoy against the and three cruisers by threatening torpedo attacks from under the cover of a severe storm and a smoke screen . " Hasty " was torpedoed by the German E - Boat " S - 55 " as she covered a large convoy to Malta during Operation Vigorous , killing 13 men . The torpedo blew off most of the bow structure and both boiler rooms started to flood . " Hotspur " took off her crew and scuttled her with a torpedo during the morning of 15 June 1942 .