Linnet-class minelayer

The Linnet class were a class of three small coastal minelayers commissioned into the Royal Navy just before the Second World War.

Design
The Linnet class were the largest of a dozen specialized vessels known as Indicator Loop Mine Layers built for the Royal Navy immediately before and during the Second World War. These vessels were designed to lay controlled mines, used in coastal defences, as well as anti-submarine indicator loops. Similar vessels known as mine planters were operated by the US Army during the same era.

Ships

 * Linnet - built by Ardrossan Dockyard, launched on 3 May 1938, served as tender to HMS Vernon, broken up in 1964.
 * Redstart - built by Henry Robb, launched on 3 May 1938, scuttled in Hong Kong on 19 December 1941 to prevent capture by the Japanese.
 * Ringdove - built by Henry Robb, launched on 15 June 1938, served as tender to HMS Vernon, sold to the Pakistani government in 1950 as a pilot vessel.