HMS ''Popham'' was a for the Royal Navy. Their names were all chosen from villages ending in ''-ham''. The minesweeper was named after Popham, Hampshire. HMS ''Popham'' was laid down in 1954 as HMS ''Hatterley'' at Vospers (the was similar to the Ham class, but only 10 ships were built). Following completion she remained in operational reserve at Hythe on Southampton Water until 1956. She was then land-cradled 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 ...

on the Clyde until 1963, and transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on 9 June 1966. She arrived in Sydney as deck cargo on board the freighter ''Gladstone Star'' on 3 September 1967. Although she was due to be converted into a diving tender and renamed ''Otter'' (Y.299), she remained in reserve in a cradle at

Garden Island, Sydney Garden Island is an inner-city locality of Sydney, Australia, and the location of a major Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base. It is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district and juts out into Port Jackson, immediately to ...

. She was listed for disposal on 31 December 1975 and sold on 17 February 1976.

References

*Blackman, R.V.B. ed. ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' (1953) Ham-class minesweepers Ships built in England 1955 ships Cold War minesweepers of the United Kingdom Royal Navy ship names {{UK-minesweeper-stub