HMIS ''Rajputana'' (J197) was a s built for the
Royal Navy, but transferred to the
Royal Indian Navy (RIN) during the Second World War.
Design and description
The ''Bangor'' class was designed as a small minesweeper that could be easily built in large numbers by civilian shipyards; as
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s were difficult to manufacture, the ships were designed to accept a wide variety of engines. ''Rajputana'' displaced at
standard load and at
deep load. The ship had an
overall length of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a
draught of .
[Lenton, pp. 253–54] The ship's complement consisted of 60 officers and
ratings.
[Chesneau, p. 64]
She was powered by two
vertical triple-expansion steam engines (VTE), each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two
Admiralty three-drum boiler
Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, an ...
s. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The ship carried a maximum of of
fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
that gave her a range of at .
[Lenton, p. 254]
The VTE-powered ''Bangor''s were armed with a
12-pounder anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
and a single
QF 2-pounder (4 cm) AA gun or a quadruple mount for the
Vickers .50 machine gun
The Vickers .50 machine gun, also known as the 'Vickers .50' was similar to the Vickers machine gun but enlarged to use a larger-calibre round. It saw some use in tanks and other fighting vehicles but was more commonly used as a close-in anti- ...
. In some ships the 2-pounder was replaced a single or twin
20 mm Oerlikon
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models emplo ...
AA gun, while most ships were fitted with four additional single Oerlikon mounts over the course of the war.
[ For escort work, their minesweeping gear could be exchanged for around 40 ]depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...
s.[
]
Construction and career
HMIS ''Rajputana'' was ordered from Lobnitz
Lobnitz & Company was a Scottish shipbuilding company located at Renfrew on the River Clyde, west of the Renfrew Ferry crossing and east of the confluence with the River Cart. The Lobnitz family lived at Chapeltoun House in East Ayrshire. The ...
& Co. originally for the Royal Navy as HMS ''Lyme Regis'' in 1940. However, before she was launched, she was transferred to the Royal Indian Navy and eventually commissioned as ''Rajputana''.Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in 1943-45.Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
, in May 1945,[Collins 1964, p. 311.] and in September 1945, carried out minesweeping operations off Singapore prior to the formal surrender of Japanese forces in South East Asia.[Collins 1964, pp. 318–319.]
Post-war service
In 1947, the Partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...
resulted in the Royal Indian Navy being split between India and Pakistan. Of eight ''Bangor''-class minesweepers in the pre-partition navy, four were transferred to Pakistan, with ''Rajputana'' one of the ships that remained in the Royal Indian Navy, which was renamed the Indian Navy in 1950.[Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 171.]
References
Bibliography
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References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajputana (J197)
Bangor-class minesweepers of the Royal Indian Navy
1941 ships
Ships built on the River Clyde
World War II minesweepers of India