HMS Cavalier celebrates 70 years since her launch

Eleven thousand lives lost at sea in World War Two have been remembered at a special ceremony in Kent. The event has been held at Chatham's Historic Dockyard to mark the seventieth anniversary of the gun ship HMS Cavalier. Andrea Thomas has this report

HMS Cavalier was launched on 7th April 1944 as one of 96 emergency destroyers ordered for the war effort between 1940 and 1942. When she paid off in Chatham in 1972, HMS Cavalier was the Royal Navy’s last surviving Second World War destroyer.

Today the ship is on display and open to visitors at The Historic Dockyard Chatham to mark her 70th anniversary since her launch.

Nearly 30,000 lives were lost in Royal Navy destroyers sunk during the Second World War.

It resulted in the loss of 142 Royal Navy destroyers in total. Since then time has taken its own toll and now just one destroyer remains, HMS Cavalier, a warship that once boasted proudly of being the fastest in the Fleet.