HMS ''Gleaner'' was one of 21 s 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 ...

in the 1930s.

Design and description

The ''Halcyon'' class designed as a replacement for the preceding Hunt class and varied in size and propulsion. ''Gleaner'' displaced at

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

load and at

deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

. The ship had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a beam of and a draught of . She was powered by two

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...

geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . ''Gleaner'' carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ship's complement consisted of 80 officers and ratings. ''Gleaner'' was armed with two QF 4-inch (10.2 cm) anti-aircraft guns. She was also equipped with eight

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

s. Later in her career, the rear 4-inch gun mount was removed as were most of the .303 machine guns, one quadruple mount for Vickers .50 machine guns was added as were up to four single or twin mounts for

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 empl ...

AA guns. For escort work, her minesweeping gear could be exchanged for around 40 depth charges.

Construction and career

''Gleaner'' was completed by

William Gray & Company William Gray & Company Ltd. was a British shipbuilding company located in West Hartlepool, County Durham, in North East England. Founded in 1863 by John Denton and William Gray as a partnership, it became a private and then a public limited com ...

, Hartlepool, as a survey vessel, but she was converted into a minesweeper when the war began. On 12 February 1940, ''Gleaner'' sank German U-boat ''U-33'' () using depth charges and deck gun. The captain was Lt.Cdr. H. P. Price, RN. The British seized some materials from the U-boat, including Enigma machine rotors VI and VII, whose wirings were unknown at the time. The seizure was one of the "pinches" that aided the

cryptanalysis of the Enigma Cryptanalysis of the Enigma ciphering system enabled the western Allies in World War II to read substantial amounts of Morse-coded radio communications of the Axis powers that had been enciphered using Enigma machines. This yielded military in ...

. The British merchant ship ''Astra II'' was torpedoed and sunk. The ship rescued 20 survivors on 29 August 1940 (). ''Gleaner'' rescued 68 survivors from the torpedoed '' Empire Tourist'' on 4 March 1944 (). She was sold for scrap in 1950.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

HMS Gleaner (J 83) of the Royal Navy - British Minesweeper of the Halcyon class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net
HMS ''Gleaner'' (J 83) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gleaner (J83) Halcyon-class minesweepers 1937 ships World War II minesweepers of the United Kingdom Cold War minesweepers of the United Kingdom