HMS Scott (J79)

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HMS Scott, 1944
HMS Scott, 1944
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Scott
NamesakeRobert Falcon Scott
BuilderCaledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee
Laid down30 August 1937[1]
Launched23 August 1938[1]
Completed23 February 1939[1]
FateScrapped, 1965
General characteristics [2]
Class and typeHalcyon-class minesweeper
Displacement
  • 875 long tons (889 t) standard
  • 1,350 long tons (1,372 t) full load
Length245 ft 9 in (74.90 m) o/a
Beam33 ft 6 in (10.21 m)
Draught8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion
  • 2 × Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers
  • Parsons
    steam turbines
  • 1,750 shp (1,300 kW) on 2 shafts
Speed17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement80

HMS Scott (J79) was a

survey ship with an enlarged bridge and a large chart room abaft the extended forecastle deck. She served through World War II
and the two following decades.

Service history

World War II

Scott surveyed the

QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun on the forecastle. By the spring of 1940 her assignments were refocused on minelaying surveys rather than escort work. She measured depth of water with tidal fluctuations and currents to determine suitable minefield locations.[1]

In May 1941 Scott narrowly avoided detection by the

After the collision damage was repaired, Scott focused on providing navigational information for the minelayers placing the Northern Barrage between Greenland and Scotland from the spring of 1942 until the project was abandoned in the autumn of 1943. She surveyed the minefields in advance, and then accompanied the minelayers while the fields were placed.[3]

After testing the

Boulogne, Brest, Dunkirk and Antwerp; and surveyed locations for the cross-channel pipelines of Operation Pluto.[1]

Post-war service

Scott was deployed in June 1960 to map shipwrecks from both World Wars in the English Channel after the arrival of giant tankers. The requirements of those ships changed the minimum of clearance between their hulls and the wrecks below.[4]

Scott completed two decades of peacetime hydrographic duties in Home Waters before being retired in 1964 and scrapped in 1965. She located and swept many war-time wrecks while re-surveying coastal Great Britain.[1] Her work was continued by Hecla class survey vessels which have, in turn, been replaced by a new HMS Scott.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "HMS Scott". Halcyon Class. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  2. ^ Lenton, H.T.; Colledge, J.J. (1968). British and Dominion Warships of World War II. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company. pp. 176–178.
  3. ^ Mason, Geoffrey B. "HMS AGAMEMNON - mercantile conversion, Auxiliary Minelayer". Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2. edited by Gordon Smith. naval-history.net. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  4. ^ "RN Conducting Wreck Survey" (PDF). The Crowsnest. Vol. 12, no. 9. Queen's Printer. July 1960. p. 5.