HMS Plover (M26)

HMS Plover was a coastal minelayer built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1930s. She laid over 15,000 mines during World War II and remained on active duty until she was sold for scrap in 1969.

Description
Plover displaced 805 LT at standard load and 1020 LT at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 195 ft, a beam of 33 ft and a draught of 10 ft. She was powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of 1400 ihp and gave a maximum speed of 14.75 kn. Steam for the engines was provided by two water-tube boilers. Plover carried a maximum of 116 LT of fuel oil. The ship's complement was 69 officers and men.

The ship initially mounted two 0.303 in machine guns, but after war broke out a single 12-pounder (3 in (76.2 mm)) gun was added aft as well as a 20 mm Oerlikon autocannon forward. Plover was initially fitted with mine recovery gear, but her mine capacity increased from 80 to 100 after it was removed when World War II began. Sometime during the war she received a Type 286 air warning radar.

Career
HMS Plover was intended to conduct mining trials and was therefore fitted to recover as well as lay mines. During World War II she laid a total of 15,237 mines, including two that sank the GERMAN DESTROYER Z8 Bruno Heinemann off the Belgian coast in January 1942.

Near the end of the war German U-325 strike a mine which was part of minefiled of Field B3, part 1 17 km South of Lizard Point at position 49.80472°N, -5.20638°W laid by HMS Plover on the morning of the 30 April 1945. Between 08:14 am and 08:42 am, the HMS Plover laid 100 Mk XVII/XVII(8) mines along a line extending for 5.3 km in a direction 283.5° from position 49.8004°N, -5.17371°W.

The ship was kept in service after the war and took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. She was sold to T. W. Ward in 1969. Plover arrived at their yard in Inverkeithing, Scotland in April 1969 to begin scrapping.