HMS ''Hodgeston'' was a which saw service with 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 the Cold War. Built by Fleetlands Shipyard, she was launched on 6 April 1954 and

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 1988.

Construction and design

''Hodgeston'' was ordered on 14 February 1952, was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

at Fleetland Shipyard's Gosport yard on 22 September 1952, was launched on 6 April 1954 and commissioned on 17 December 1954. 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 ...

and

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 ...

, with a beam of and a draught of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was normal and deep load. ''Hodgeston'' was initially powered by a pair of 12-cylinder Mirrlees

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, driving two shafts and giving a total of , giving the ship a speed of , but these were later replaced by two

Napier Deltic The Napier Deltic engine is a British opposed-piston valveless, supercharged uniflow scavenged, two-stroke diesel engine used in marine and locomotive applications, designed and produced by D. Napier & Son. Unusually, the cylinders were disp ...

engines, giving a total of . 45 tons of fuel were carried, giving a range of at . Armament consisted of a single

Bofors 40 mm 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 ...

anti-aircraft gun forward and two

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 ...

aft. Minesweeping equipment included wire sweeps for sweeping moored contact mines and acoustic or magnetic sweeps for dealing with influence mines. The ship had a crew of 27 in peacetime and 39 in wartime.

Service

''Hodgeston'' spent many years attached to the 10th Mine Counter Measure (MCM10) Squadron manned by the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

(RNR). Between 1954 and 1960 she was renamed HMS ''Northumbria'' whilst attached to the Tyne Division of the RNR based at Gateshead. On 30 May 1955, ''Northumbria'' was in collision with the Cypriot ship off

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

and was holed. ''Cyprian Prince'' towed her into port. On 24 July 1960, ''Northumbria'' ran aground at Lindisfarne,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

. Between 1961 and 1975 she was renamed HMS ''Venturer'' whilst attached as sea-going tender to the Severn Division of the RNR at based in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. On 1 January 1976, the ship joined the South-West group of the 10th Mine Counter Measures Squadron, reverting to her original name ''Hodgeston''. She attended the 1977 Silver Jubilee

Fleet Review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

off

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

when she was part of the 10th Mine Countermeasures Squadron. In 1979, she was attached to the Clyde division of the RNR, while later that year, she transferred to the Fishery Protection Squadron. On 21 June 1979, the commercial tanker ''Tarpenbek'', carrying a load of lubricating oil, collided with the landing ship off

Selsey Bill Selsey Bill is a headland into the English Channel on the south coast of England in the county of West Sussex. The southernmost town in Sussex is Selsey which is at the end of the Manhood Peninsula and ''Selsey Bill'' is situated on the town's so ...

in thick fog, holing the tanker. ''Hodgeston'' went to the assistance of ''Tarpenbek'', and when the tanker capsized in heavy seas, helped to co-ordinate with salvage vessels, which managed to recover the oil, preventing major ecological damage, and salvaged the tanker, righting her by Parbucking. Later that summer, she went to the aid of the trawler ''Excellent'', which had caught a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

in her nets, escorting the trawler to Penzance Bay where bomb disposal squads dealt with the mine. On 23 June 1982 she was part of the North West group of the RNR, and was attached to the Clyde division again in 1983. She was de-commissioned in 1985 following the acquisition of the as her successor as tender to HMS ''Graham''. Following this she spent time attached to the Fisheries Protection Squadron of the Royal Navy before being sold in September 1988. She was broken up at

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

by 29 December 1988. She is the only ship of the name to serve in the Royal Navy to date.

Commanding officers

References

Publications

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgeston, Hms Ton-class minesweepers of the Royal Navy Ships built in Portsmouth 1954 ships Cold War minesweepers of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1955 Maritime incidents in 1960