Ship "Index"
17). WW11 Escort Sloops, & Frigates,
( # ) - against ships name shows either new or updated entry. - This section updated Late December 2009.
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In this section I hope to show some of the various classes of "Convoy Escort" ships as they grew in size and ability throughout WW11. I have now moved the many photos of the "Flower Class Corvettes", and those of the larger and more capable "Castle Class Corvette", which gradually replaced them from 1943 onwards, to the following "section 17a".
There are also examples, in the growing "Miscellaneous section", of some of the various other classes of " WW11 Sloop and "Destroyer" that were also used as Convoy Escorts.
The American designed "Captains Class" along with the U.S. derivative of the British "River Class", known to the U.S.Navy as the "Tacoma Class" and to the R.N as the "Colony Class", are also here. The photo's of these classes of ships have been provided by a donor who wishes to remain "Anonymous", hence there are no credits beneath them.
The "Black Swan Class" which, along with the contemporary "Egret" class, was a pre WW11 design "Sloop"- now re-designated as an A.S.W. Frigate, are shown here. They were quite complex and difficult ships to build and needed the resources of large Naval Shipyards to deal with their "Steam Turbine" power plants and associated machinery. The "River Class" was a wartime emergency attempt to build a simpler and cheaper ship with all the capabilities of the "Black Swan's" albeit around 8 to 10 knots slower. Not all of the smaller shipbuilding yards at that time could accommodate the "Rivers" 300ft. hull and so a smaller ship was designed at 250ft. which became the "Castle Class Corvette" as seen in the following "section 17a".
All of these developments were required as the task of escorting convoys grew in its demands due to the ever increasing abilities and performance of the German U-Boats. It was fortunate indeed that the wars end came before the introduction, into full active service, of the German "Type XX1" submarine, as it would have completely outclassed any then existing A.S.W. ship employed against it. As it was, this submarine influenced the future design of all Navies "Conventional Submarine fleets" and altered beyond recognition the design and performance required of any ship that were to be pitted against them.
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"Black Swan class" ( also includes many "Egret Class" ) This class was designed and building commenced pre WW11. It was purely designed from the start as a "Convoy Escort Sloop" with a heavy emphasis on AA. defence. Its ASW cababilities were somewhat of a secondary nature although this is not all that clear when the exploits of Capt. F.J.Walker, possibly one of the greatest ASW team leaders of WW11 are taken into account. His use of this class of ship as part of the 36th Escort Group and the later 2nd Support Group are almost legendary. They were complicated and difficult ships to build with steam turbine plant. This was one of the main reasons for the adoption of the "Flower, River and Castle classes" of ASW ships. They were later put to good effect due to their heavy AA fit out with the BPF later in the war and many also served throughout the Korean war and later with Foreign Navies. 13). Jhelum. (Indian Navy) - 1 photo. 14). Jumna. (Indian Navy) - 1 photo. 19). Mermaid. – 4 photo's WW11 Sloop. + 1 photo of 1960's oddball "Mermaid" _______________________________________ "Captains Class". ( Named after "Napoleonic War" Captains whilst in RN service.) This American designed ship came in 6 differing sub-types, of which 2 were used by the R.N. We received 78 ships in total under lend-lease, 32 of the "Evarts" and 46 of the "Buckley" sub classes. Their main advantage was in their propulsion systems being either Diesel/Electric in the "Evarts" or Turbo/Electric in the "Buckleys". These systems did away with the expensive and difficult to produce "Reduction gearing" required in the power trains of conventional Steam turbine powered RN ships. 29). Redmill. ( action damaged ) - 1 photo. #
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River Class". This class was developed to have the same capabilities as the pre WW11 "Black Swan" class. However, they were much simpler, cheaper and easier to build with "Reciprocating" rather than "Steam Turbine" power plants. They were designed to be 50ft. longer, at 300ft., than the contemporary "Castle Class", and so the task of building them could not be carried out in many smaller "Civilian" yards. The design was also used as the basis of the USN "Tacoma class", known to the RN as the "Colony Class". The hull design was later elaborated into the "Loch and Bay Class" Frigates, several of which are displayed in section 16a. of this site. 13). Nunotris. ( ex HMS Avon ) - 1 photo. ______________________________________
"Miscellaneous" Escort types. Thanks mainly to Mr. Jim Bryce I have now been able to place the following ships into a better "Class grouping". ___________________________________________ Grimsby Class Sloops. 7). Warrego - HMAS - 2 photo's. # __________________________________ Bridgewater ( ? Shoreham ) Class Sloops. ____________________________________ Bangor Class Sloop. ______________________________________ "Banff" Class Sloop. ( Ex USCG Cutter ) _____________________________________ Kingfisher Class Corvettes. _____________________________________ "Anti-Aircraft Artillery" Ship. - ( A.A.A. ) ____________________________________ "Tacoma" ( USN ) & "Colony Class" ( RN ) ( Both classes were US designed and built using experience gained from the RN "River Class". They did, however, have lighter Main Armament than contemporary RN ships in that they used the American 3" rather than the RN standard 4" gun) 1). Tacoma. ( US Navy ) - 1 photo. # 2). Anguilla. ( RN ) - 2 photo's. # 3). Caicos. ( RN ) - 1 photo. # 4). Somaliland. ( RN ) - 1 photo. # 5). Tortola. ( RN ) - 1 photo. # ____________________________________
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