List of minesweepers of the Royal Navy

Active Ships

Hunt class mine countermeasure vessels
- HMS Ledbury (M30)
  HMS Ledbury (M30)
  HMS Ledbury , the third ship of the name, is a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was launched on December 1979 and commissioned on 11 June 1981, the second ship of her class. She cost £65 Million at time of building, which was the most expensive cost per metre for any class of ship...
- HMS Cattistock (M31)
  HMS Cattistock (M31)
  HMS Cattistock , the third ship of this name, is a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1981 and commissioned on 5 March 1982, the third ship of her class....
- HMS Brocklesby (M33)
  HMS Brocklesby (M33)
  HMS Brocklesby is a Hunt-class mine countermeasure vessel of the British Royal Navy.-Operational History:She gained her most recent battle honour when she was among the first coalition ships into Umm Qasr during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was part of a group of mine countermeasure vessels who...
- HMS Middleton (M34)
  HMS Middleton (M34)
  HMS Middleton is a Hunt-class mine countermeasure vessel of the British Royal Navy. She forms part of the Second Mine Countermeasures Squadron based in Portsmouth.-Affiliations:* Middleton, Rochdale...
- HMS Chiddingfold (M37)
  HMS Chiddingfold (M37)
  HMS Chiddingfold is a Hunt-class mine countermeasure vessel of the British Royal Navy.She was launched in October 1983 by her sponsor, Lady Anne Kennon, and formally entered the service of the Royal Navy in October 1984. HMS Chiddingfold is a minehunter, hence her purpose is to find and destroy...
- HMS Atherstone (M38)
  HMS Atherstone (M38)
  HMS Atherstone is a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 1 March 1986 and commissioned on 17 January 1987, the tenth ship of her class....
- HMS Hurworth (M39)
  HMS Hurworth (M39)
  HMS Hurworth is a Hunt-class mine countermeasure vessel of the British Royal Navy.On 2 March 2009, she was the centrepiece of the festivities to mark the 800th anniversary of the granting of a freedom charter by King John to Great Yarmouth.-External links:*...
- HMS Quorn (M41)
  HMS Quorn (M41)
  HMS Quorn , the third ship of this name, is a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 23 January 1988, the last ship of her class....

Sandown-class minehunters
Sandown class minehunter
The Sandown class is a class of minehunter originally built for the British Royal Navy). Sandown-class vessels also serve with the Royal Saudi Navy and the Estonian Navy...
- HMS Walney (M104)
  HMS Walney (M104)
  HMS Walney was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. She was the fourth of the Sandown-class minehunters, and the second ship to carry the name, which comes from the island off Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria on the north-west coast of England.-Career:She was launched on 25 November...
- HMS Penzance (M106)
  HMS Penzance (M106)
  HMS Penzance is a Sandown class minehunter commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1998. She is named after the Cornwall seaside town of the same name, and is the fourth vessel to bear the name.-External links:*...
- HMS Pembroke (M107)
  HMS Pembroke (M107)
  HMS Pembroke is a Sandown-class minehunter of the Royal Navy.-External links:* *...
- HMS Grimsby (M108)
  HMS Grimsby (M108)
  HMS Grimsby is a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy, and the second ship to bear the name.-History:She was built by Vosper Thornycroft, in Woolston, Hampshire, and commissioned in 1999...
- HMS Bangor (M109)
  HMS Bangor (M109)
  HMS Bangor is a Sandown class minehunter commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1999. She is named after the Northern Ireland seaside town of the same name, and the second Royal Navy vessel to bear the name.-Operation Unified Protector:...
- HMS Ramsey (M110)
  HMS Ramsey (M110)
  HMS Ramsey is a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. Like other vessels of the Sandown class, the Ramsey is built of glass-reinforced plastic and other non-magnetic materials so that her hull does not trigger mines as easily as standard warships.She is the third vessel to bear the...
- HMS Blyth (M111)
  HMS Blyth (M111)
  HMS Blyth is a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. She is the second vessel to bear the name.The first being a Bangor class minesweeper of the Second World War,pennant number J15....
- HMS Shoreham (M112)
  HMS Shoreham (M112)
  HMS Shoreham is a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. She is the fifth vessel to bear the name.-External links:* -References:...

Historic ships

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...

clearance was originally done by whatever type of vessel could easily be adapted to the task, paddle steamer

Paddle steamer

A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...

s proving particularly suitable due to their shallow draught. In both World Wars trawlers

Naval trawler

A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...

were employed, as they were naturally suitable vessels for wire sweeping (in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

this task was given to smaller trawlers of around 300 tons, larger ones being used for anti-submarine work). The increased sophistication and threat posed by the mine meant that specialist mine countermeasure vessels eventually had to be built; the Minesweeping Sloop (this term was officially dropped in 1937, but continued in use nonetheless). The Royal Navy has possessed such vessels since 1914.

There were also some conversions of ships originally built for other purposes for special minesweeping. This was mainly early in World War II

World War II

for sweeping of acoustic and magnetic mines, and later in the war influence mines. The ships selected were of varying origin and age and thus do not form a class as such.

Flower class
Flower class sloop
The Flower class comprised five sub-classes of sloops built under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy during World War I, all of which were named after various flowers...

(112 ships in 4 sub-classes, launched 1914—1918) convoy sloops intended originally for minesweeping
Hunt class, Belvoir group
Hunt class minesweeper (1916)
The Hunt class minesweeper was a class of minesweeping sloop built between 1916 and 1919 for the Royal Navy. They were built in two discrete groups, the earlier Belvoir group designed by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company and the subsequent Aberdare group designed by the Admiralty...

(20 ships, launched 1916—1917) Ailsa
Ailsa Shipbuilding Company
-History:The company was founded in 1885 by the 3rd Marquess of Ailsa.In 1902 the Ailsa yard fitted out the polar exploration ship Scotia for the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of 1902-04...

twin-screw coastal minesweeping sloops
Hunt class, Aberdare group
Hunt class minesweeper (1916)
The Hunt class minesweeper was a class of minesweeping sloop built between 1916 and 1919 for the Royal Navy. They were built in two discrete groups, the earlier Belvoir group designed by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company and the subsequent Aberdare group designed by the Admiralty...

(87 ships, launched 1917—1919) Admiralty twin-screw coastal minesweeping sloops
Dance class
Dance class minesweeper
The Dance class minesweepers were originally designed as a shallow-draft twin-screw tunnel tugs, and were taken over by the Admiralty as coastal minesweeping sloops. They were completed between November 1917 and September 1918 under the Emergency War Programme.-Ships: - October 1917; Used to sweep...

(14 ships, launched 1917-1919) tunnel-screw coastal minesweeping sloops
Racecourse class
Racecourse class minesweeper
The Racecourse class minesweepers were 32 ships delivered to the Royal Navy during the First World War. They were built to two related designs as paddlewheel coastal minesweeping sloops under the Emergency War Programme. The vessels were reasonable sea-boats, but lost speed badly in a seaway when...

(32 ships in 2 sub-classes, launched 1916—1918) paddlewheel coastal minesweeping sloops
Halcyon class
Halcyon class minesweeper
The Halcyon class was a class of 21 oil-fired minesweepers built for the British Royal Navy between 1933 and 1939...

(7 reciprocating and 14 turbine ships, launched 1933—1939) twin-screw minesweeping sloops
Bangor class
Bangor class minesweeper
The Bangor-class minesweepers were a class of minesweepers operated by the Royal Navy , Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Indian Navy during World War II....

(14 ships, launched 1940—1942) diesel twin-screw single-role minesweeping sloops
Blyth class (Bangor class II) (19 ships, launched 1940—1943) reciprocating Bangor variant
Ardrossan class (Bangor class III) (26 ships, launched 1940—1942) turbine Bangor variant
Bathurst class
Bathurst class corvette
The Bathurst class corvettes were a class of general purpose vessels produced in Australia during World War II. Originally classified as minesweepers, but widely referred to as corvettes, the Bathurst class vessels fulfilled a broad anti-submarine, anti-mine, and convoy escort role.Sixty Bathurst...

(47 ships, launched 1940—1943 only served with the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

and Royal Indian Navy
Royal Indian Navy
The Royal Indian Navy was the naval force of British India. Along with the Presidency armies and the later British Indian Army it comprised the Armed Forces of British India....

) Australian Bangor variant
MMS class
MMS class minesweeper
The MMS class were a class of 402 coastal minesweepers built for the Royal Navy between 1940 and 1945. They were of wooden construction to counteract magnetic mines.The coastal minesweepers had pennant numbers MMS1 to MMS312 and MMS1001 to MMS1090...

(403 ships, launched 1940—1945) inshore acoustic / magnetic motor minesweepers
Algerine class
Algerine class minesweeper
The Algerine-class was a class of minesweepers of the Royal Navy and the Commonwealth. 110 ships of the class were launched between 1942 and 1944 and served in World War II....

(98 ships, launched 1941—1945) twin-screw multi-role minesweeping sloops
Catherine class (22 ships, transferred from the US Navy in 1941 under the Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...

program) twin-screw multi-role minesweeping sloops
BYMS class
BYMS class minesweeper
The BYMS class was a class of wooden motor minesweepers, part of the US Navy YMS Yard class minesweepers. 150 ships destined for UK were launched from 1941 to 1943....

(150 ships, launched 1941—1943) British Yard acoustic / magnetic motor minesweepers
Ton class
Ton class minesweeper
The Ton class were coastal minesweepers built in the 1950s for the Royal Navy, but also used by other navies such as the South African Navy and the Royal Australian Navy...

(116 ships, launched 1952—1959) open-water minesweepers, minehunters and mine countermeasures vessels
Ham class
Ham class minesweeper
The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers , known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. It took its name from the fact that all the ship names were British place names ending in -"ham"...

(93 ships, launched 1954—1959) inshore minesweepers
Ley class
Ley class minehunter
The Ley class was a class of inshore minehunter built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1950s. They had pennant numbers in the series M2001. Eleven ships were built in the early 1950s, most of which were subsequently disarmed and used as training vessels, RNXS tenders, URNU vessels etc.Unlike...

(10 ships, launched 1952—1955) inshore minehunters
Wilton class (1 ship, launched 18 January 1972) open-water minesweeper and minehunter. Prototype ship built in Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) to same hull design as Ton Class and forerunner of Hunt and Sandown Classes also constructed in GRP.
Hunt class
Hunt class MCMV
The Hunt class is a class of thirteen mine countermeasure vessels of the Royal Navy. They combine the separate role of the traditional minesweeper and that of the active minehunter in one hull...

(13 ships, launched 1978—1988) mine countermeasures vessels
Venturer class
Venturer class minesweeper
The Venturer class minesweepers were naval trawlers converted from fishing trawlers to minesweeper service for the Royal Navy in 1978.There were 2 members of the class: - originally Suffolk Harvester - originally Suffolk Monarch...

(2 ships, purchased 1979) deep-water single-role minesweepers
River class
River class minesweeper
The River class was a class of minesweeper built for the British Royal Navy in the 1980s, designated Fleet Minesweepers .-Design:The Rivers were built with a traditional steel hull to a design based on a commercial offshore support vessel...

(12 ships, launched 1982—1985) deep-water single-role minesweepers
Sandown class
Sandown class minehunter
The Sandown class is a class of minehunter originally built for the British Royal Navy). Sandown-class vessels also serve with the Royal Saudi Navy and the Estonian Navy...

(12 ships, launched 1990—2001) single-role minehunters

Active Ships

Historic ships

See also