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Shearwater | |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Operators | Royal Navy |
Preceded by | Grimsby class |
Succeeded by | Bittern class |
Built | 1934–1939 |
In commission | 1935–1950 |
Completed | 9 |
Lost | 1 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Sloop-of-war |
Displacement | |
Length | 243 ft 3 in (74.1 m) o/a |
Beam | 26 ft 6 in (8.1 m) |
Draught |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Complement | 60 |
Armament |
|
The Kingfisher class was a class of nine patrol sloops of the British Royal Navy built in three groups of three each during the 1930s, that saw service during World War II, mainly on East Coast convoys in the North Sea.
The Kingfisher class was an attempt to build a patrol vessel under 600 tons, due to the lack of clauses on vessels this size in the London Naval Treaty of 1930. It was intended it would escort coastal shipping in wartime. Its small size and short range that this entailed (it was based on a scaled-down destroyer) rendered it unsuitable for open ocean work. The design had a number of shortcomings, it was designed to too high a standard; constructed to full naval warship specifications and powered by geared steam turbine engines, it was not suitable for mass production and it was armed with only one 4-inch gun forward and depth charges aft, which severely limited their ability to defend themselves, let alone their charges.
The woeful lack of defensive armament was addressed early in the war by adding a multiple Vickers machine gun on the quarterdeck in the Kingfisher and Kittiwake groups, as per the Shearwaters. As they became available, two 20 mm Oerlikon guns were added, on pedestal mounts on the deckhouse aft, with the useless machine gun being replaced later with a further pair of such weapons. Centimetric Radar Type 271 was added on the roof of the bridge as it became available, this was a target indication set capable of picking up the conning tower or even the periscope or snorkel of a submarine. Radar Type 286 air warning was added at the masthead. The ships that had the Mark V gun on the open mounting HA Mark III had a shield added to give the gun crews a measure of protection on the exposed fo'c'sle.
Nicholas Monsarrat, the author of The Cruel Sea , served in two Kingfisher-class sloops: HMS Guillemot in 1942 as First Lieutenant, and HMS Shearwater in 1943 as Captain, after they had been reclassified as corvettes. HMS Dipper and HMS Winger were the fictional names he gave to these Kingfisher class corvettes in his stories East Coast Corvette (1943) and Corvette Command (1944), written during the war when security included ship's names.
The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in seven groups known as the Caroline class, the Calliope class, the Cambrian class, the Centaur class, the Caledon class, the Ceres class and the Carlisle class. They were built for the rough conditions of the North Sea, and proved to be rugged and capable vessels, despite being somewhat small and cramped.
Eight ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Challenger, most famously the fifth, the survey vessel Challenger that carried the Challenger expedition from 1872 to 1876.
The V and W class was an amalgam of six similar classes of destroyer built for the Royal Navy under the 9th, 10th, 13th and 14th of fourteen War Emergency Programmes during the First World War and generally treated as one class. For their time they were among the most powerful and advanced ships of their type in the world, and set the trend for future British designs.
The Hunt class was a class of escort destroyer of the Royal Navy. The first vessels were ordered early in 1939, and the class saw extensive service in the Second World War, particularly on the British east coast and Mediterranean convoys. They were named after British fox hunts. The modern Hunt-class GRP hulled mine countermeasure vessels maintain the Hunt names lineage in the Royal Navy.
Fourteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name Kingfisher, after the kingfisher bird:
The Arabis class was the third, and largest, of the five sub-classes of minesweeping sloops completed under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I. They were part of the larger "Flower class" shipbuilding project, which were also referred to as the "Cabbage class", or "Herbaceous Borders". The ships were also used outside their minesweeping duties as patrol vessels, tugs, and personnel and cargo transports.
HMS Kingfisher (L70) was a Royal Navy patrol vessel and the lead ship of the Kingfisher-class sloops, laid down in 1934 and commissioned in 1935. She took part in the Dunkirk evacuation, and spent much of the Second World War as an experimental trials ship. She was sold for scrap in 1947.
HMS Shearwater was a Kingfisher-class sloop of the Royal Navy.
HMS Puffin (L52), was a Kingfisher-class sloop of the British Royal Navy, built in the 1930s, that saw service during World War II. The ship was laid down on 12 June 1935 by Alexander Stephens and Sons, based at Linthouse in Glasgow, launched on 5 May 1936, and commissioned on 6 August 1936.
Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Rover:
Five ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Shearwater after the shearwater, a seabird:
The Élan class was a class of French minesweeping sloops. Originally designed as minesweepers, they were never used in that role, instead being used mostly as escort vessels. Built between 1936 and 1940, the first came into service just before the outbreak of World War II.
HMS Widgeon may refer to one of several Royal Navy ships named after the Widgeon:
HMS Bideford was a Royal Navy Shoreham-class sloop. She was named after the town of Bideford in Devon and was launched on 1 April 1931.
The Chamois class were French minesweeping sloops ordered between 1935 and 1939. They were similar in design to the Élan class, and like them classed as minesweepers, but were actually used as anti-submarine ships, convoy escorts and patrol vessels.
HMS Mallard was a Kingfisher-class sloop of the British Royal Navy. Completed in 1936, Mallard served through the Second World War, carrying out convoy escort operations off the east coast of the British Isles. She was sold for scrap in 1947.
HMS Deptford was a Grimsby-class sloop of the British Royal Navy. Built at Chatham Dockyard in the 1930s, Deptford was launched in 1935 and commissioned later that year. The ship saw early service on the Persian Gulf station, but the outbreak of the Second World War saw Deptford serving as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, sinking a German U-boat in 1941. She survived the war and was scrapped in 1948.
HMS Fleetwood was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Built at Devonport Dockyard in the 1930s, Fleetwood was launched in March 1936 and commissioned in November that year. She served in the Red Sea until the outbreak of the Second World War. Fleetwood served as a convoy escort during the war, which she survived, and sank the German submarines U-528 and U-340. Post-war, the ship served as a radar training ship, remaining in use until 1959, when she was scrapped.