A TREAD PLATE FROM H.M. DESTROYER PETARD, WHICH ASSISTED IN THE SINKING OF U-559 AND THE RECOVERY OF THE ENIGMA 'SHARK' CODEBOOKS IN 1942

heavily cast in brass with inset raised lettering within ebonised field, now mounted to wooden display frame with plaque inscribed PRESENTED BY / P & W MACLELLAN 1967 -- 13 x 23½in. (33 x 60cm.)

Christie's South Kensington: Maritime & Naval Battles, 16th May 2007, lot 54 (one of two).

H.M.S. Petard was one of the eight 'Paladin' or 'P' class of destroyers ordered for the fleet on 2nd October 1939, just weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War. Launched on 27th March 1941, she was ready for sea before the year's end. Like all her sisters, she displaced 1,550 tons, measured 345 feet in length with a 35-foot beam and carried a main armament of 4-4.7in. guns.

During a relentlessly busy wartime career, her most memorable encounter with the enemy took place on 30th October 1942 when, in company with her sister Packenham, another destroyer Hero and two escort destroyers, she depth-charged and forced to the surface the German submarine U-559 north-east of Port Said. As soon as the U-boat broke surface, Petard opened fire and scored a direct hit on the conning tower thereby forcing the crew to abandon their submarine. Immediately afterwards, Lieutenant Anthony Fasson (Petard's first officer) and two crew dived into the sea, swam over to the stricken U-boat and boarded her. Before she sank, taking Fasson and one of the other men with her, they managed to retrieve numerous secret documents, one of which proved to be a priceless set of cribs for solving the 'Shark' Enigma codes, which was broken at Bletchley Park on 13th December. Allied shipping losses in the Atlantic halved in early 1943 and there is no doubt that millions of tons of shipping were saved; as one naval historian has put it: "Few acts of courage by three individuals can ever have had so far-reaching consequences."

Surviving the War, Petard was converted into an 1,800-ton frigate in 1956 and eventually scrapped in 1967.

Condition Report

overall wear commencement with age

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