HMS ''Ibis'', pennant number U99, was a sloop of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

, named after the

Ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word ...

. She was built by Furness Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.,

Haverton Hill-on-Tees Haverton Hill is an area within the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and ceremonial county of County Durham, England. Once considered a part of Billingham, Haverton Hill was once a thriving industrial community which has suffered significant depopu ...

, Co. Durham, was laid down on 22 September 1939, launched on 28 November 1940, and completed 30 August 1941. She was adopted by the civil community of Stoke Newington in London as part of the

Warship Week Warship Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the aim of a Royal Navy warship being adopted by a civil community. During the early parts of the war, the Royal Navy not only had lost many capital ships bu ...

savings campaign in 1942. ''Ibis'' was sunk by an airborne torpedo from an Italian aircraft in the Western

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, north of Algiers, French Algeria, on 10 November 1942. The Scottish comedian

Rikki Fulton Robert Kerr "Rikki" Fulton, OBE (15 April 1924 – 27 January 2004) was a Scottish comedian and actor best remembered for writing and performing in the long-running BBC Scotland sketch show, ''Scotch and Wry''. He was also known for his appea ...

was a member of her crew.

Notes

Publications

* * *Hughes, Robert (1975). ''Flagship to Murmansk''. London, England: Future Publications. ISBN 0860072665. Pages 83–6 give an account of the sinking of the ''Ibis'' and the rescue of survivors as seen by HMS ''Scylla''. Ships built on the River Tees Black Swan-class sloops World War II sloops of the United Kingdom Sloops of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Ships sunk by Italian aircraft 1940 ships Maritime incidents in November 1942 {{UK-mil-ship-stub