HMS ''Fareham'' 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 1948.
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 had a
length 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 ...
of
[ and 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 ...
. The ''Aberdare''s had 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 . 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.][ Ships that served in the Second World War initially had two machine guns installed in the ]bridge wing
file:Bridge of the RV Sikuliaq.jpg, The interior of the bridge of the Research Vessel ''RV Sikuliaq, Sikuliaq'', docked in Ketchikan, Alaska
file:Wheelhouse of Leao Dos Mares.jpg, Wheelhouse on a tugboat, topped with a flying bridge
The bridg ...
s. Later the four-inch gun was replaced by another twelve-pounder and the machine guns were replaced by 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 ...
. Later still another pair of Oerlikons was mounted in the stern.[Lenton, p. 250]
Construction and career
In 1944–45 she was named ''St Angelo II'', acting as a minesweeping base ship.
See also
* Fareham
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fareham
Hunt-class minesweepers (1916)
Royal Navy ship names
1918 ships