Halcyon-class minesweeper

The Halcyon class was a class of 21 oil-fired minesweepers (officially, "fleet minesweeping sloops") built for the British Royal Navy between 1933 and 1939. They were given traditional small ship names used historically by the Royal Navy and served during World War II.

Design
There were 21 ships in the Halcyon class, built in two groups; the first using reciprocating steam engines, with steam turbines in the latter. They were generally smaller versions of the Grimsby class escort sloops. Niger and Salamander of the reciprocating group used vertical triple expansion engines, instead of the vertical compound engines of their sisters. As a result of the increased installed power they had a half knot speed advantage, even though they used slightly shorter hulls. The turbine ships used the same shorter hulls as Niger and Salamander, but with lower installed power, speed dropped back to 16.5 kn.

Gleaner, Franklin, Jason and Scott were completed as unarmed survey vessels, Sharpshooter and Seagull being converted to follow suit. They were all re-armed and deployed in their original role on the outbreak of war. Seagull had the first all-welded hull built for the Royal Navy.

Service history
Halcyons served in Home waters, at Dunkirk, on Arctic convoy duty, and in the Mediterranean.

On 3 February 1940 Sphinx (Cdr. J. R. N. Taylor, RN) was sweeping an area 15 mi north of Kinnaird Head when attacked by enemy aircraft. A bomb pierced the fo'c'sle deck and exploding destroying the fore part of the ship. She remained afloat and was taken in tow by Halcyon but steadily flooded and capsized and sank. The wreck was later washed ashore north of Lybster and was sold for scrap. The Commanding Officer and forty of the men were killed in the explosion.

Skipjack (Lt.Cdr. F. B. Proudfoot, RN) was attacked and sunk by a force of German dive-bombers off De Panne, Belgium on 1 June 1940. On board Skipjack were between 250 and 300 soldiers just rescued from the Dunkirk beaches during Operation Dynamo. Eye witness William Stone said "she just disappeared".

Halcyons were pressed into service as anti-submarine escorts; this task slowly decreasing as the ships specifically designed for this task, such as Flower class corvettes, came off the slips. Halcyons accompanied most of the Arctic Convoys, serving both as minesweepers and anti-submarine escorts. Several spent extended periods working out of Soviet naval bases in Northern Russia, such as Murmansk. Four Halcyons were lost during this period.


 * Gossamer (Lt.Cdr. T. C. Crease), having escorted the very first Arctic Convoy, attacked a German U-boat while escorting Convoy PQ 11, and helped rescue the crew of HMS Edinburgh. Gossamer was dive-bombed and sunk on 26 June 1942 in the Kola Inlet.
 * Niger (Cdr. A. J. Cubison, DSC and Bar) was lost off Iceland on 5 July 1942 while escorting Convoy PQ-13, when part of the convoy wandered into a British minefield.
 * Leda was torpedoed and sunk in the Greenland Sea on 29 September 1942 while escorting Convoy QP 14.
 * On 31 December 1943 during the Battle of the Barents Sea, Bramble was attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper on while escorting Convoy JW 51B. After sustaining serious damage, Bramble was finished off by the German destroyer Eckholdt.

Hebe and Speedy served in the Mediterranean as part of the 14th/17th Minesweeper Flotilla based in Malta. The minesweepers saw action during the Malta Convoys, Operation Torch, and Operation Corkscrew. Hebe was lost to a mine off Bari, Italy on 22 November 1943.

Britomart (Lt. Cdr. Nash, MBE, RNR) and Hussar (Lt.Cdr. A. J. Galvin, DSC, RNR) were sunk by aerial rockets fired from RAF Typhoons in a "friendly fire" incident on 27 August 1944 off Cap d'Antifer, Le Havre. Salamander was badly damaged astern in the same incident and she was written off as a constructive total loss and eventually scrapped without repair. Jason was attacked during the same incident but escaped major damage.

Reciprocating group

 * Ordered 1932
 * HMS Halcyon, built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, sold for scrapping 1950
 * HMS Skipjack, built by John Brown, bombed and sunk off Dunkirk on 1 June 1940
 * Ordered 1933
 * HMS Harrier, built by John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, sold for scrapping 1950
 * HMS Hussar, built by Thornycroft, sunk in error by RAF aircraft off Cap d'Antifer on 27 August 1944
 * Ordered 1934
 * HMS Speedwell, built by William Hamilton and Company, Port Glasgow, sold out of service 1946, wrecked and scrapped 1954
 * Ordered 1935
 * HMS Niger, built by J. Samuel White & Company, Cowes, mined off Iceland on 4 June 1942
 * HMS Salamander, built by White, damaged in RAF rocket attack off Cap d'Antifer on 27 August 1944 and written off as constructive total loss, sold for scrapping 1946

Turbine group

 * Ordered 1936
 * HMS Franklin, built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Troon, sold for scrapping 1956
 * HMS Gleaner, built by William Gray & Company, Hartlepool, sold for scrapping 1950
 * HMS Gossamer, built by William Hamilton and Company, bombed and sunk in Kola Inlet on 24 June 1942
 * HMS Hazard, built by William Gray, sold for scrapping 1949
 * HMS Hebe, built by HM Dockyard, Devonport, mined and sunk off Bari, 22 November 1943
 * HMS Jason, built by Ailsa, sold out of service 1946, sold for scrapping 1950
 * HMS Leda, built by HM Dockyard Devonport, torpedoed and sunk by U-435 in Greenland Sea on 20 September 1942
 * HMS Seagull, built by HM Dockyard Devonport, sold for scrapping 1956
 * HMS Sharpshooter, built by HM Dockyard Devonport, renamed Shackleton 1953 and converted to survey vessel, sold for scrapping 1956
 * Ordered 1937
 * HMS Bramble, built by HM Dockyard Devonport, sunk by gunfire from German warships in Barents Sea, 31 December 1942
 * HMS Britomart, built by HM Dockyard Devonport, sunk in error by RAF aircraft off Cap d'Antifer, 27 August 1944
 * HMS Scott, built by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee, sold for scrapping 1965
 * HMS Speedy, built by William Hamilton and Company, sold out of service 1946, sold for scrapping 1957
 * HMS Sphinx, built by William Hamilton and Company, bombed by German aircraft off Kinnaird Head on 3 February 1940, later sank under tow and wreck washed ashore off Lybster, salvaged and scrapped 1950