HMS Wrangler (F157): Present at Tokyo Bay, Later Sunk by a South African Submarine

The Build: Barrow

HMS Wrangler was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, laid down on 23 September 1942, launched on 30 December 1943 and completed on 14 July 1944, one of eight W-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War, joining the 27th Destroyer Flotilla and working up at Scapa Flow before deploying to the Mediterranean.

Striking a Sumatran Oil Refinery

By late 1944, Wrangler had transferred to the Eastern Fleet, escorting aircraft carriers during attacks on Japanese-occupied territory and taking part in Operation Robson against a Sumatran oil refinery that December, before undergoing major boiler maintenance in Bombay from January to May 1945.

Present Aboard USS Missouri

Wrangler reinforced the British Pacific Fleet in the summer of 1945 and was present when Japan formally surrendered aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September that year, a significant front-row seat to the end of the Second World War, before helping ferry former prisoners of war home.

The First of Her Class Rebuilt

Returning to Plymouth in December 1945, Wrangler served as a training vessel until 1950, before becoming, in 1951, the first ship of her class to be converted into a Type 15 anti-submarine frigate, receiving the new pennant number F157 during a major reconstruction at Harland and Wolff in Belfast that ran from June 1951 to March 1953, complete with a redesigned superstructure and new radar systems.

A South African Career and a Submarine's Target

Sold to South Africa in 1956 for £1,425,000, Wrangler was commissioned into the South African Navy as SAS Vrystaat on 29 November that year, going on to conduct numerous port visits across Africa and take part in naval reviews until corrosion problems forced her into reserve in 1963.

Vrystaat was finally sunk as a target by the submarine SAS Maria van Riebeeck on 14 April 1976, eight nautical miles southwest of Cape Point, closing out the career of a destroyer that had once stood in Tokyo Bay to witness history.