HMS ''Bassingham'' was one of 93 ships of the of inshore

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 ...

s, of which was the first. Their names were all chosen from villages ending in -ham. The minesweeper was named after Bassingham in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. She was built by Vospers Ltd. of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, which later became Vosper-Thorneycroft and was commissioned in October 1953. She displaced 164 tons fully laden and was armed with one

40 mm Bofors gun Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

. The engines of this class were Paxman diesels, some of which were built under licence by

Ruston and Hornsby Ruston & Hornsby was an industrial equipment manufacturer in Lincoln, England founded in 1918. The company is best known as a manufacturer of narrow and standard gauge diesel locomotives and also of steam shovels. Other products included cars ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

s and

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

. She was

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 ...

by beam. Jane's and the ''Bassingham'' website are not consistent about the building material. Jane's says the Ham class, numbered in the 2601 series was of wood. According to the web site, ''Bassingham'' was of composite wood and "non-metallic material" construction but Jane's 1953 says that the composite vessels were numbered in the 2001 series and named after places ending in -ley (). It seems likely that policy changed after Jane's 1953-4 was published.

Service history

Initially based at Plymouth, in December 1954 she joined the 232nd Minesweeping Squadron of the Inshore Flotilla based at Harwich, Essex. In 1956 ''Bassingham'' sailed to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

to take part in operations in Egypt during the Suez Crisis. Subsequently, she was transferred to the

Royal East African Navy The Royal East African Navy was a unified naval force of the former British colonies of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zanzibar. It was the colonial forerunner of the Kenyan Navy and Tanzanian Navy.Gray, Randal, ed., ''Conway's All the World's F ...

, based in

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, Kenya. After two years, she returned to Royal Navy service. She was eventually sold to Pounds shipbreaking yard in Portsmouth in 1966, remaining there for the next 14 years, being used to provide spare parts for other ships of her class until she was

broken up Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of Interchangeable parts, parts, which can be sold for re-use, ...

in late 1980.

References

*Blackman, R.V.B. ed. ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' (1953)

External links

HMS ''Bassingham''
Ham-class minesweepers Royal Navy ship names 1952 ships {{UK-minesweeper-stub