Built as a destroyer under yard No 580, by Alex Stephen & Sons, Glasgow for the Royal Navy.
07 April 1941 keel laid down.
29 January 1942 launched under the name BRAMHAM, one of the Hunt class of which 86 were built.
Displacement 1.050 standard, 1.430 tons full load, dim. 280 x 31.6 x 13ft (draught maximum)
Powered by Parsons turbines, 19.000 shp, twin propellers, speed 25 knots.
Range by 20 knots, 2.560 miles.
Armament 6 – 4inch HA/LA guns, 1 – 2pdr. pompom, 2 – 20 mm Oerlikons, 50 depth charges, one rail and two throwers.
Complement 9 officers and 155 men.
16 June 1942 commissioned.
After she was commissioned and a work up period she joined the Londonderry Special Escort Division in August 1942.
She was then used for the famous Pedestal Convoy to Malta with other Royal Navy ships. She escorted the damaged tanker OHIO inside Malta on 13 August 1942; she is the vessel alongside the portside of the OHIO on the stamp. The starboard vessel is HMS PENN.
After delivery of the tanker to Malta she was used as an escort for the damaged aircraft carrier HMS INDOMITABLE for the U.K. After arrival in the U.K. she sailed to Scapa Flow and was then used in escorting oilers to Iceland during convoy PQ18/QP14 in September 1942.
20 October 1942 sailed out from Londonderry for Gibraltar in preparation for the landing in North Africa in Operation Torch. When used during this operation in a position between Phillipeville and Bougie on 20 November a bomb hit her. The bomb penetrated the upper deck and fell through the bottom and exploded under the vessel in the sea. She received severe structural damage and was flooded.
She limped to Algiers and after temporary repair there she sailed on 20 December 1942 for Gibraltar. At Gibraltar other repairs were undertaken, before she headed as an additional escort for convoy MK56 to the U.K..
After arrival in the U.K. she sailed to the Tyne for repair, and was under the hands of the yard from 09 February 1943 till 10 July 1943.
February 1943 handed over to the Royal Greek Navy and renamed THEMISTOCLES.
30 September 1943 arrived at Levant Station, and took part in the Aegean Campaign the next two months.
The rest of the war she was used for escort duties, except when she took part in the Anzio Landings in February 1944, the landings in France in August 1944 and during the re-occupation of the Aegean Islands in October 1944.
On the end of 1944 was she a unit of the Greek 12th Flotilla at Piraeus.
In service after the war till 12 December 1959 by the Greek navy, when she was handed back to the British Royal Navy.
30 June 1960 sold to Greek shipbreakers.
She is the ship on the port side of the OHIO.
Malta 2005 Lm1 sg?, scott?
Source: The Hunts by John English. Some web-sites.