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

minesweepers 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 ...

. Completed in 1953 for use in the British

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 ...

, she served as a tender to between 1954 and 1955 before being placed in reserve. In 1967 she was transferred to the newly-independent country of South Yemen renamed ''Al Saqr''. She was renamed ''Jihla'' in 1975 and discarded in 1984.

Construction and design

HMS ''Bodenham'' (originally planned to be named ''Green Chaffinch'') was ordered from

Brooke Marine Brooke Marine (also known as J.W. Brooke & Co. and Brooke Yachts) was a Lowestoft-based shipbuilding firm.Brooke ...

of Lowestoft on 29 September 1950 as part of the first series of Ham-class inshore minesweepers.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 541.Worth 1986, p. 123. The ships of the first series of the Ham class were

long between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

and

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

, with 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 draught of .Blackman 1962, p. 283. They had hulls of composite wood-and-

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

construction and displaced standard and deep load. They were propelled by two Paxman

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s, with a total of , giving a speed of . 15 tons of oil were carried, giving an endurance of at . Armament consisted of a single

Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 (often referred to simply as the "Bofors 40 mm gun", the "Bofors gun" and the like, see name) is an anti-aircraft autocannon, designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. The g ...

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 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 em ...

, although the ships armed with Bofors guns were usually rearmed with Oerlikons. The ships had a complement of two officers and 13 ratings.Blackman 1971, p. 368. ''Bodenham'' was launched on 21 August 1952,Colledge and Warlow 2006, p. 43. and was completed on 23 September 1953.

Service

The Ham class were too small to carry modern minesweeping equipment and in particular, lacked the electrical generating capacity to power acoustic and magnetic sweep gear, so saw little active use with the Royal Navy. ''Bodenham'' served as tender to between 1954 and 1955, then going into operational reserve at

Rosneath Rosneath (''Ros Neimhidh'' in Gaelic) is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It sits on the western shore of the Gare Loch, northwest of the tip of the Rosneath Peninsula. It is about by road from the village of Kilcreggan, which is sited ...

, which lasted until 1963.Worth 1986, p. 126. In 1967, South Yemen became independent from the United Kingdom, and three Ham-class minesweepers (''Bodenham'', and ) were transferred to the newly established nation's navy.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 641.Blackman 1971, p. 280. ''Bodenham'' was renamed ''Al Saqr'' on transfer and ''Jihla'' in 1975, and was discarded in 1984.

References

Citations

Sources

* * Blackman, V.B. ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1962–63''. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1962. * Blackman, V.B. ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1971–72''. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1971. . * Gardiner, Roger and Stephen Chumbley. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. . * Worth, Jack. ''British Warships Since 1945: Part 4 Minesweepers''. Liskeard, UK: Maritime Books, 1986. . Ham-class minesweepers Ships built in Lowestoft 1952 ships Cold War minesweepers of the United Kingdom Royal Navy ship names {{yemen-stub