HMS ''Portisham'' was one of 93 ships of the of inshore minesweepers. Their names were all chosen from villages ending in ''-ham''. The minesweeper was named after

Portesham Portesham, sometimes also spelled Portisham, is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England, situated in the Dorset Council administrative area approximately northwest of Weymouth, southwest of the county town Do ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, using an alternative spelling for the village. Portisham served in 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 F ...

from 1956 until 1964, when she was transferred to the

Royal Naval Auxiliary Service The Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) was a uniformed, unarmed, civilian volunteer service, administered and trained by the Royal Navy to operate in the ports and anchorages of the United Kingdom in an emergency. Although the abbreviated title w ...

(RNXS). On 15 April 1973, Portisham assisted a

Royal Dutch Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

Breguet Atlantic Breguet or Bréguet may refer to: * Breguet (watch), watch manufacturer **Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), Swiss watchmaker **Louis-François-Clement Breguet (1804–1883), French physicist, watchmaker, electrical and telegraph work * Bréguet ...

aircraft no 257 which ditched off Wassenaar, Netherlands. Portisham was removed from service in 1983. After her sale in 1989 she was laid up and for sale in a boatyard in Essex. She was procured for conversion to a

liveaboard Liveaboard can mean: *Someone who makes a boat, typically a small yacht in a marina, their primary residence. Powerboats and cruising sailboats are commonly used for living aboard, as well as houseboats which are designed primarily as a res ...

ship by an Irish national in 2007 and is currently the second biggest private vessel under the Irish flag.

References

Man living in ‘floating home’ wins reprieve against councilSupreme Court defers ruling in row over ‘floating home’ in Dublin
*Blackman, R.V.B. ed. ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' various editions *Colledge J.J. ''Ships of the Royal Navy'' various editions *Cocker M.P. ''Mine Warfare Vessels of the Royal Navy'' (1993) Ham-class minesweepers Royal Navy ship names 1955 ships Ships and vessels on the National Archive of Historic Vessels {{UK-minesweeper-stub