High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Matapan (D43) was a later or 1943 Battle-class fleet destroyer of the Royal Navy (RN). She was named after the Battle of Cape Matapan between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina, and which ended in a decisive victory for the RN force, resulting in the destruction of three cruisers and two destroyers of the Italian Navy and was a heavy blow to the Italians, coming only months after their battleship fleet had been mortally wounded at Taranto. So far, she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear that name.