Active ships

* s ** HMS ''Ledbury'' (M30) ** HMS ''Cattistock'' (M31) ** HMS ''Brocklesby'' (M33) ** HMS ''Middleton'' (M34) ** HMS ''Chiddingfold'' (M37) ** HMS ''Hurworth'' (M39) * s ** HMS ''Penzance'' (M106) ** HMS ''Pembroke'' (M107) ** HMS ''Grimsby'' (M108) ** HMS ''Bangor'' (M109) ** HMS ''Shoreham'' (M112)

Historical ships

Naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an ...

clearance was originally done by whatever type of vessel could easily be adapted to the task,

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

s proving particularly suited due to their shallow draught. In both World Wars

naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built ...

s were used, as they were naturally suitable for wire sweeping. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

this task was given to smaller trawlers of about 300 tons, larger ones being used for anti-submarine work. The increased sophistication and threat posed by the mine meant that specialist mine countermeasure vessels eventually had to be built: the Minesweeping Sloop. This term was officially dropped in 1937, but remained in use nonetheless. The Royal Navy has possessed such vessels since 1914. There were also some conversions of ships originally built for other purposes for special minesweeping. This was mainly early in

for sweeping acoustic and magnetic mines, and later in the war for sweeping influence mines. The ships selected were of varying origin and age and thus do not form a class as such. *

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

(112 ships in 4 sub-classes, launched 1914–1918) convoy sloops intended originally for minesweeping * Hunt class, ''Belvoir'' group (20 ships, launched 1916–17) Ailsa twin-screw coastal minesweeping sloops * Hunt class, ''Aberdare'' group (87 ships, launched 1917–1919) Admiralty twin-screw coastal minesweeping sloops * (14 ships, launched 1917–1919) tunnel-screw coastal minesweeping sloops * (32 ships in 2 sub-classes, launched 1916–1918) paddlewheel coastal minesweeping sloops * (7 reciprocating and 14 turbine ships, launched 1933–1939) twin-screw minesweeping sloops * (14 ships, launched 1940–1942) diesel twin-screw single-role minesweeping sloops * ''Blyth'' class (''Bangor'' class II) (19 ships, launched 1940–1943) reciprocating ''Bangor'' variant * ''Ardrossan'' class (''Bangor'' class III) (26 ships, launched 1940–1942) turbine ''Bangor'' variant * (47 ships, launched 1940–1943 only served with the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister o ...

and

Royal Indian Navy The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. F ...

) Australian ''Bangor'' variant * (403 ships, launched 1940–1945) inshore acoustic / magnetic motor minesweepers * (98 ships, launched 1941–1945) twin-screw multi-role minesweeping sloops * (22 ships, twin-screw multi-role minesweeping sloops, transferred from the US Navy in 1941 under the

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

program) * (150 ships, launched 1941–1943) British-built acoustic / magnetic motor minesweepers * (2 ships, launched 1943) towed pressure-mine detonating vessels * (116 ships, launched 1952–1959) open-water minesweepers, minehunters and mine countermeasures vessels * (93 ships, launched 1954–1959) inshore minesweepers * (10 ships, launched 1952–1955) inshore minehunters * ''Wilton''-class minesweeper/minehunter (1 ship, launched 18 January 1972) open-water minesweeper and minehunter. Prototype ship built of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) to same hull design as ''Ton'' class. Forerunner of the Hunt and ''Sandown'' classes, also built of GRP. * (13 ships, launched 1978–1988) mine countermeasures vessels * (2 ships, bought 1979) deep-water single-role minesweepers * (12 ships, launched 1982–1985) deep-water single-role minesweepers * {{sclass, Sandown, minehunter (12 ships, launched 1990–2001) single-role minehunters

Active ships

Historical ships

See also