Navy:

RN

Type:

Destroyer

Class:

Town 

Pennant:

I 52 

Built by:

Mare Island Navy Yard (Vallejo, California, U.S.A.) 

Laid down:

25 Apr, 1918 

Launched:

14 Jan, 1919 

Commissioned:

5 Dec, 1940 

End service:

10 Dec, 1943 

USS Claxton was decommissioned on 5 December 1940, and commissioned in the Royal Navy the same day as HMS Salisbury.

HMS salisbury arrived at Belfast, Northern Ireland, 30 December 1940 for duty with the Western Approaches Command escorting Atlantic convoys. In April and May 1942, she joined in escorting the American aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) on her two voyages to fly planes off for beleaguered Malta. Returning to the Clyde, HMS Salisbury guarded troop convoys in the Atlantic until September, when she was assigned to the Royal Canadian Navy. Based on St. John's, Newfoundland, Salisbury served on local escort duty until November 1943, when with newer escorts available, she was placed in care and maintenance status at Halifax, and paid off on 10 December 1943. She was sold for scrapping 26 June 1944 at Vancouver.