HMS Iveston (M1151)

HMS Iveston was a Ton-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy, formerly of the Second Mine Countermeasures Squadron. She has been decommissioned and now operates as the training ship T.S. Iveston. Iveston was built by Phillip & Son in Dartmouth and launched on 29 June 1955. In 1965, Iveston was commanded by Mark Ruddle, a former submariner. 24 years later Christopher Ameye was appointed in command until 1992 when Iveston was decommissioned. On 19 July 1968 HMS Iveston joined "Reclaim" at a salvage area, and was withdrawn the next day. After her decommissioning, HMS Iveston became the Sea Cadet training ship T.S. Iveston, in 1993.

Construction
Phillip & Son in Dartmouth built Iveston. Her hull was a double mahogany hull upon an aluminium frame with 360 tons displacement. She was given two Paxman Deltic 18A-7A diesel engines that can power her to a top speed of 15 kn and a range of 2500 nmi at 12 kn. She can carry a crew of 38 including five officers. She is armed with a Bofors 40 mm/60 Mk 3 dual-purpose gun; two Oerlikon 20 mm guns and three FN 7.62 mm machine-guns. Once complete she was launched on 29 June 1955.

Mutiny
According to the National Maritime Museum, there was a mutiny on board HMS Iveston at Ullapool in 1970. This was the last mutiny in the Royal Navy. Five of the crew were dismissed and jailed for their drunken protest which involved singing Irish songs outside of the officers’ wardroom.

Sea Cadet use
T.S. Iveston is now under the control of the Sea Cadet Corps. She berthed in Tilbury Docks as a training base. Iveston is used mostly by Thurrock Sea Cadets who use her weekly, although training is also available for Sea Cadets from Essex, Greater London and more recently Southern and Eastern areas. The training available can be for marine engineering, seamanship, canoeing, pulling, sailing, powerboating, cook/steward and instructors’ courses.

Iveston was in desperate need of more accommodation, so the help of B&T Lifting of Tilbury and Lowes Metals of Grays was enlisted to remove the winch from the ship to make room for a portable building. There are now two other containers on the quay, where Iveston is berthed, which are used as additional classrooms.