The Echo class was a class of multi-purpose hydrographic survey ships in commission with the Royal Navy. The ships were primarily tasked with conducting survey work in support of submarine and amphibious operations, however, the class also has a secondary role in mine countermeasures. The two vessels of the class were the most recent additions to the Royal Navy's Hydrographic Squadron. Each ship displaced approximately 3,700 tonnes, and was equipped with a state of the art suite of equipment. The lead ship of the class, HMS Echo, was retired in 2022 and her sister ship in 2023.
HMS Enterprise, the tenth ship to bear this name, was a multi-role survey vessel - hydrographic oceanographic (SVHO) of the Royal Navy along with HMS Echo that made up the Echo class of survey vessels.
HMS Herald was a Hecla-class ocean survey ship that served with the Royal Navy during both the Falklands War and Gulf War.
HMS Hydra was a Royal Navy deep ocean hydrographic survey vessel, the third of the original three of the Hecla class. The ship was laid down as yard number 2258 on 14 May 1964 at Yarrow Shipbuilders, at Scotstoun on the River Clyde and launched on 14 July 1965 by Mary Lythall, wife of the then Chief Scientist, Basil W Lythall CB (1919–2001). She was completed and first commissioned on 4 May 1966 and, as the replacement for the survey ship HMS Owen, her commanding officer and many of her ship's company formed the first commission of HMS Hydra. She was decommissioned and sold to the Indonesian Navy in 1986 and renamed KRI Dewa Kembar ; she was still in service in 2019.
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is the UK's agency for providing hydrographic and marine geospatial data to mariners and maritime organisations across the world. The UKHO is a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is located in Taunton, Somerset, with a workforce of approximately 900 staff.
A research vessel is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated vessel. Due to the demanding nature of the work, research vessels may be constructed around an icebreaker hull, allowing them to operate in polar waters.
HMS Beagle was a Bulldog class coastal survey vessel of the Royal Navy and was the ninth to bear the name.
Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Fawn:
Rear-Admiral Sir David William Haslam was a Royal Navy officer.
HMS Fawn was a Royal Navy 17-gun Cruizer-class sloop launched in 1856. She served on the Australia, North America and Pacific stations before being converted to a survey ship in 1876. She was sold and broken up in 1884.
Admiral Sir William James Lloyd Wharton was a British admiral and Hydrographer of the Navy.
Earle Island is a small ice-free island 6 kilometres (3 nmi) south-west of Darwin Island which marks the south-western end of the Danger Islands. Following hydrographic work in the area from HMS Endurance in 1977–78, it was named, in association with Beagle Island and other names in the group, after Augustus Earle, an artist on board HMS Beagle.
Rear-Admiral George Stephen Ritchie CB DSC was a British admiral noted for his cartographic and hydrographic work and as an author of many publications on hydrography. He was Hydrographer of the Navy from 1966 to 1971.
Rear Admiral Bruce Kafer, is a senior Royal Australian Navy officer and former Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy, a position he held from December 2009 until December 2013. Kafer served as the Director-General of the Australian Navy Cadets and Reserves from December 2014 to December 2016, when he was appointed Head of the Cadet, Reserve and Employer Support Division.
Admiral Sir Arthur Mostyn Field, was a senior officer in the Royal Navy who served as Hydrographer of the Navy from 1904 to 1909.
Vice-Admiral Sir John Augustine Edgell, KBE, CB, FRS was an officer in the Royal Navy and Hydrographer of the Navy from 1932 to 1945. He was noted for his support for innovations such as echo sounding and radio navigation, for the surveying and chart production operations of his department during World War II, and for his advocacy of the science of oceanography
Sir Herbert Edward Purey-Cust, KBE, CB was an officer in the Royal Navy and Hydrographer of the Navy from 1909 to 1914.
HMSAS Protea was the first hydrographic survey ship used by the South African Naval Service. The ship was laid down as a minesweeper to be named HMS Ventnor in 1917 but was renamed HMS Verwood in 1918 while under construction. She was again re-named and launched as HMS Crozier on 1 July 1919. The vessel was converted from a minesweeper to a hydrographic survey vessel in 1921 and transferred to the South African forces in 1922, where she was commissioned as HMSAS Protea. She served as a survey vessel until 1933 when she was returned to the Royal Navy. Protea was eventually sold by the Royal Navy and renamed MV Queen of the Bay where she went on to operate as a pleasure craft out of Blackpool. She was subsequently sold to the Spanish Navy and renamed Lieutenant Captain Remigio Verdia, and used as supply vessel to run blockades, smuggling supplies to the anti-fascists in Spain during the civil war. She ran aground and sunk off Cartagena in Spain in 1939.
John Edward Davis (1815-1877) was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographic surveyor and artist, noted for his illustrations of the Antarctic voyage of James Clark Ross (1839-1843) and for his expertise in deep-sea sounding.
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