HMS ''Alresford'' was a Hunt-class

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

of the ''Aberdare'' sub-class built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War and survived the Second World War to be sold for scrap in 1947.

Design and description

The ''Aberdare'' sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced at normal load. They measured

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

with a

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of . They had a draught of . The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.Gardiner & Gray, p. 98 The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . They carried a maximum of of coal which gave them a range of at .Cocker, p. 76 The ''Aberdare'' sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) gun forward of the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

and a QF twelve-pounder (76.2 mm) anti-aircraft gun aft. Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.

Construction and career

HMS ''Alresford'' was built by the

Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ailsa Shipbuilding Company was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Troon and Ayr, Ayrshire. History The company was founded in 1885 by the 3rd Marquess of Ailsa along with Peter James Wallace and Alexander McCredie. In 1902 the Ailsa yard ...

at their shipyard in

Troon Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O ope ...

, Ayrshire. In 1936–38, she was a tender to the navigation school, , and was used for local running in the Portsmouth area, training officers in pilotage. ''Alresford'' took part in

Operation Dynamo Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

and the Dieppe Raid.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alresford Hunt-class minesweepers (1916) Royal Navy ship names 1919 ships