HMS Harvester (H19)

( Casualty List )

Navy: Royal Navy
Type: Destroyer
Class: Havant 
Pennant: H 19 
Built by: Vickers Armstrong (Barrow-in-Furness, U.K.) 
Laid down: 3 Jun, 1938 
Launched: 29 Sep, 1939 
Commissioned: 23 May, 1940 
Complement: 145
Lost: 11 March, 1943  (Lt. Cdr. A. A. Tait, RN. DSO)  (c 51-00'N,29-00'W) Mid. North Atlantic             2  torpedoes and sunk by U-432(Eckhardt)        while escorting convoy HX-228.              Commanding Officer among those lost.
 
History: Requisitioned by the Royal Navy on 4 September 1939 while being built for the Brazilian Navy. Named HMS Handy, renamed HMS Harvester before completion on 27 February 1940.

HMS Harvester rams the German submarine U-444 was but is disabled and the U-boat has to be finished off by French corvette Aconit. HMS Harvester, now stationary, is which is in turn brought to the surface by Aconit\'s depth charges and finally destroyed by gunfire and ramming. 

Former name: HMS Handy (ex. Brazilian Jurus)