Shoreham-class sloop
.jpg) HMS Fowey (F15) in May 1942
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Preceded by | Hastings class |
| Succeeded by | Grimsby class |
| Built | 1930–1932 |
| In commission | 1931–1968 |
| Completed | 8 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 1,105 long tons (1,123 t) |
| Length | 281 ft (86 m) |
| Beam | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draught | 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m) |
| Propulsion | Geared turbines, 2 shafts, 2,000 shp (1,491 kW) |
| Speed | 16 knots (18 mph; 30 km/h) |
| Complement | 95 |
| Armament |
|
The Shoreham-class sloops were a class of eight warships of the Royal Navy built in the early 1930s.
Developed from the
Bridgewater-class sloops, with a longer hull, the Shoreham-class sloops were laid down between 1929 and 1931 at Chatham and Devonport Naval Dockyards
.
Ships
- HMS Fowey was launched on 4 November 1930 and sold for merchant use in 1946. From 1940 to 1942, she was engaged in North Atlantic escort and anti-submarine duty. Fowey participated in the sinking of U-55 on 30 January 1940 and rescued survivors from various sinkings.
- Dunkirk evacuation (May 1940), she was used in anti-submarine sweeps and as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic. She rescued 63 survivors of the torpedoed MV Edward Blyden on 3 September 1941 and 31 more from the MV Abosso on 31 October 1942. In August 1943, Bideford, with the 40th Escort Group in the Bay of Biscay, was damaged by a Henschel Hs 293glider bomb.
- Invasion of Normandy and remained engaged in English Channel escort duties with the 41st Escort Group until refit in November. The refit completed in March 1945 included modifications for service as the training ship for the Portsmouth Navigation School, HMS Dryad. Rochester served as the navigation training ship until September 1949 and was scrapped in 1951.[2]
- Galvani off the Gulf of Oman. She participated in Operation Countenance, the invasion of Iran, in August 1941. Her role was to transport infantry to Khorramshahr and, with HMAS Yarra, neutralise local Iranian land and sea forces. Her departure from the Shatt al-Arab near Basrawas delayed when she ran aground and had to wait for the tide to refloat her.
- Poncelet off the coast of Gabon, on 7 November 1940, though this was later credited to David Corkhill flying a Supermarine Walrus biplane.[4]On 30 May 1943, she went to the assistance of the freighter Flora McDonald, torpedoed off the coast of West Africa.
- HMS Weston was launched on 23 July 1932 and scrapped in 1947. She spent the war years in home waters and the North Atlantic. On several occasions, she rescued survivors of torpedoed ships and on 31 May 1940, Weston sank U-13 in the North Sea.
- HMS Dundee was launched on 20 September 1932 at Chatham and sunk on 15 September 1940 by U-48, while escorting a convoy.
Notes
- ^ History : HMS Shoreham : Sandown Class : Mine Countermeasure : Surface Fleet : Operations and Support : Royal Navy Archived 9 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mason, Geoffrey B. Gordon Smith (ed.). "HMS ROCHESTER (L 50) - Shoreham-class Sloop". Naval History. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ Gough Island, South Atlantic Ocean
- ^ "Commander David Corky Corkhill obituary". Daily Telegraph. 13 December 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
References
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1980). "Great Britain (including Empire Forces)". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 2–85. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Hague, Arnold (1993). Sloops: A History of the 71 Sloops Built in Britain and Australia for the British, Australian and Indian Navies 1926–1946. Kendal, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-67-3.
- Hepper, David; Johnson, Harold & Weatherhorn, Aryeh (2006). "Question 14/05: Loss of HMS Dundee (L 84)". Warship International. XLIII (2): 145–146. ISSN 0043-0374.
- ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shoreham class sloop.