The second HMS Whirlwind was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy and was built by Hawthorn Leslie and was launched on 30 August 1943.

[2] The W-class were War Emergency Programme destroyers, intended for general duties, including use as anti-submarine escort, and were to be suitable for mass-production.

[3][4] The W-class were almost identical to the U-class ordered as the 7th Emergency Flotilla and the V-class ordered as the 8th Emergency Flotilla earlier in the year, with the major difference the fitting of a new dual-purpose fire control director, capable of directing both anti-aircraft and anti-aircraft fire.

615 tons of oil were carried, giving a range of 4,675 nautical miles (5,380 mi; 8,658 km) at 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h).

[6] On commissioning, when the ship was assigned the pennant number R87,[10] Whirlwind was allocated to serve with the Eastern Fleet, and left Britain in October 1944.

While on passage, she was briefly diverted to operations in the Mediterranean, escorting the battleship King George V during a bombardment of the island of Milos in the Aegean on 13 November 1944, before continuing to the Eastern Fleet's base at Trincomalee in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

[17] In December 1962 Whirlwind was at Bermuda during the talks between British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and American President John F. Kennedy that resulted in the Nassau Agreement which allowed Britain to purchase Polaris nuclear-armed missiles.

Whirlwind's crew provided security for the meeting while the ship formed a communications link for the Ministry of Defence.