HMS ''Scott'' (J79) was a (officially, "fleet minesweeping sloop") of the British
Royal Navy completed as an unarmed
survey ship
A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...
with an enlarged
bridge and a large
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
room abaft the extended
forecastle deck. She served through
World War II and the two following decades.
Service history
World War II
''Scott'' surveyed the
English Channel in 1939 in preparation for laying a Channel Mine Barrage, and directed
minelayers laying the barrage immediately following declaration of war. She was equipped for anti-submarine escort assignments when the Channel minelaying was completed, but retained the chart room by sacrificing her
mainmast to compensate for the additional topside weight of a
QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun on the forecastle. By the spring of 1940 her assignments were refocused on minelaying surveys rather than escort work. She measured depth of water with tidal fluctuations and currents to determine suitable minefield locations.
[
In May 1941 ''Scott'' narrowly avoided detection by the while surveying Greenland pack ice in the Denmark Strait. She was damaged in a collision with in December 1941 while assisting the ]British Commando
The Commandos, also known as the British Commandos, were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from Winston Churchill, for special forces that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe. Initially drawn ...
raid Operation Anklet on the Lofoten Islands.[
After the collision damage was repaired, ''Scott'' focused on providing navigational information for the minelayers placing the Northern Barrage between Greenland and Scotland from the spring of 1942 until the project was abandoned in the autumn of 1943. She surveyed the minefields in advance, and then accompanied the minelayers while the fields were placed.
After testing the Decca Navigator System at Moray Firth in early 1944, ''Scott'' surveyed positions for the blockships and Phoenix breakwaters of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches during the Invasion of Normandy. She then surveyed liberated harbours including Morlaix, Boulogne, Brest, France, Brest, Dunkirk and Antwerp; and surveyed locations for the cross-channel pipelines of Operation Pluto.][
]
Post-war service
''Scott'' was deployed in June 1960 to map shipwrecks from both World Wars in the English Channel after the arrival of giant Tanker (ship), tankers. The requirements of those ships changed the minimum of clearance between their hulls and the wrecks below.[ Her work was continued by survey vessels which have, in turn, been replaced by a new .
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, HMS
1937 ships
Ships built in Dundee
Survey vessels of the Royal Navy
Halcyon-class minesweepers