The destroyer H.M.S. Whelp, 1,710 tons, measured 339½ feet in length with a 36 foot beam, and was launched from Hawthorn Leslie's yard on 3 June 1943. Commissioned on 17 April 1944 with H.R.H. Prince Philip of Greece as her First Lieutenant, she saw extensive action in the Indian ocean that autumn, and then again early in January 1945, the latter during Operation "Lentil" (an attack on vital Sumatran oil refineries). Various operations in the Pacific ended her wartime career and she was sold to the South African Navy in 1953 who renamed her Simon van der Stel.
[Prince Philip of Greece was created Duke of Edinburgh at the time of his marriage to H.M. the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, in 1947].