 Sister ship Le Hardi at anchor
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Mameluk |
| Namesake | Mameluk |
| Ordered | 4 May 1936 |
| Builder | Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, Nantes |
| Laid down | 1 January 1937 |
| Launched | 18 February 1939 |
| In service | 17 June 1940 |
| Captured | 27 November 1942 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 27 November 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Le Hardi-class destroyer |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 117.2 m (384 ft 6 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 11.1 m (36 ft 5 in) |
| Draft | 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) |
| Range | 3,100 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 187 officers and enlisted men |
| Armament |
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Mameluk was one of a dozen Le Hardi-class destroyers built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. The ship was completed during the Battle of France in mid-1940 and her first mission was to help escort an incomplete battleship to French Morocco only days before the French signed an armistice with the Germans in June. She then helped to escort one of the battleships damaged by the British during their July attack on Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, back to France in November. Mameluk returned to Morocco in early 1941 for convoy-escort duties and then was transferred back to France in late 1941.
When the Germans occupied Vichy France after the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942 and tried to seize the French fleet intact, the destroyer was one of the ships scuttled to prevent their capture. The Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) unsuccessfully attempted to salvage her in 1943. The ship was refloated in 1947 and subsequently scrapped.