Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 16, 2026

Grimsby-class sloop

The Grimsby class were a class of 13 sloops laid down between 1933 and 1940. Of these, eight were built in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy, four in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and one for the Royal Indian Navy. Main armament was initially two 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns for RN ships and three 4-inch (100 mm) for Australian ships, but armament varied considerably between ships, and was increased later.

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HMAS Swan in 1945
Class overview
Builders
Operators
Preceded byShoreham class
Succeeded byKingfisher class
Cost£220,000 for Australian ships
Built1933–1940
In commission1934–1966
Completed13
Lost4
Preserved1
General characteristics RN Ships1
Displacement
Length266 ft 3 in (81.15 m) o/a
Beam36 ft (11.0 m)
DraughtRN ships : 9 ft 11 in (3.02 m) – 10 ft 1 in (3.07 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2 shafts; geared steam turbines
Speed16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph)
Complement100
Armament

The Grimsby class were a class of 13 sloops laid down between 1933 and 1940. Of these, eight were built in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy, four in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and one for the Royal Indian Navy. Main armament was initially two 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns for RN ships and three 4-inch (100 mm) for Australian ships, but armament varied considerably between ships, and was increased later.

Losses during World War II were Grimsby, Indus, Yarra, and Parramatta. Some survivors of this class served into the 1960s. One ship, Wellington, is preserved as the headquarters of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners.

Design

The Royal Navy started to build replacements for the Flower-class and Hunt-class sloops of the First World War, when the two vessels of the Bridgewater class were laid down in 1928, with the similar four-ship Hastings class laid down in 1929 and the eight ships of the Shoreham class being laid down in 1929–31. All of these ships were designed to combine the convoy-escort role of the Flower class with the minesweeping duties of the Hunt class, being fitted with equipment for both roles. By 1932, however, it became clear that what was needed was ships dedicated to a single role. Development therefore began of the Halcyon-class minesweepers as a cheaper mass-production minesweeper, while a new class of sloops would be built that was more closely matched to the escort role.23

The new class of escort sloops, the Grimsby class, had a heavier gun armament than its predecessors, with two 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark IX guns mounted fore and aft replacing the 4-inch (102 mm) guns of the earlier ships. As the 4.7-inch guns were low-angle guns, not suited to anti aircraft use, a single QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun was mounted in "B" position. Four 3-pounder saluting guns completed the ships' gun armament.14 The ship was powered by two geared steam turbines driving two shafts, fed by two Admiralty 3-drum boilers. This machinery produced 2,000 shaft horsepower (1,500 kW) and could propel the ships to a speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph).1

Eight ships of the class were built for the Royal Navy, being laid down between 1933 and 1935 and completing between 1934 and 1936. The last two ships built for the Royal Navy, HMS Aberdeen and HMS Fleetwood had differing armaments, with Aberdeen replacing the 4.7 and 3-inch guns with two 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, and adding a quadruple .50-inch anti-aircraft machine gun mount, while Fleetwood had a main gun armament of two twin 4-inch anti-aircraft mounts, with a short-range anti-aircraft armament of four .50 in machine guns.5

Fitting Out H.M.A.S. Yarra at Sydney (1935) by Frank Norton source ↗

The Royal Australian Navy also adopted the Grimsby class, with two ships being laid down in 1934–35 and completed in 1935–36, with two more ships laid down in 1938–39 and completed in 1940. The first two ships were armed with three single 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, while the third and fourth ships having one twin and one-single 4-inch mount, with short-range armament a quadruple machine gun mount in all four ships.6

The armament of most of the class was reinforced during the Second World War, with several gaining additional 4-inch guns, with the close in anti aircraft armament being supplemented by the addition of Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. The ships' depth charge complement increased from 15 at the start of the war to 40 for Australian ships and up to 90 for Royal Navy ships, while several ships were also refitted with a Hedgehog anti-submarine projector.1

Ships

Name Builder Ordered Laid down Launched Commissioned Fate
Royal Navy
Group 1
Grimsby HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 November 19327 23 January 19335 19 July 19335 17 May 19345 Sunk in air attack by Italian and German dive bombers off Tobruk, 25 May 194189
Leith HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 November 19327 6 February 19335 9 September 19335 12 July 19345 Sold into mercantile service, 25 November 1946
Royal Danish Navy survey ship Galathea 1949
Scrapped 195510
Lowestoft HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 May 19337 21 August 19335 11 April 19345 22 November 19345 Sold into mercantile service, 1946
Scrapped 195511
Wellington HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 May 19337 25 September 19335 29 May 19345 24 January 19355 Sold to Honourable Company of Master Mariners as Headquarters, 194712
Londonderry HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 March 19347 11 June 19345 16 January 19355 20 September 19355 Broken up at Llanelly, 194813
Deptford HM Dockyard, Chatham 1 May 193314 30 April 19345 5 February 19355 20 August 19355 Broken up at Milford Haven, 194815
Group 2
Aberdeen HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 March 19357 12 June 19355 22 January 19365 17 September 19365 Broken up at Hayle, 194916
Fleetwood HM Dockyard, Devonport 1 March 19357 14 August 19355 24 March 19365 19 November 19365 Broken up at Gateshead, 195917
Royal Australian Navy
Yarra Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney 22 December 193318 24 May 19346 28 March 19356 19 December 19356 Sunk in surface action off Java, 4 March 194219
Swan Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney 2 January 193518 1 May 19356 28 March 19366 10 December 19366 Broken up at Sydney, 196420
Parramatta Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney July 1938 9 November 19386 18 June 19396 8 April 19406 Sunk in torpedo attack off Tobruk, 27 November 194120
Warrego Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney December 1938 10 May 19396 10 February 19406 21 August 19406 Broken up at Sydney, 196521
Royal Indian Navy
Indus Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Hebburn 14 August 193318 8 December 193319 24 August 193419 15 March 193519 Sunk in air attack off Akyab, 6 April 194222
See also

See also

Notes

Notes

  1. Campbell 1980, p. 56
  2. Campbell 1980, pp. 55–56
  3. Hague 1993, pp. 10–13
  4. Hague 1993, p. 13
  5. Hague 1993, p. 42
  6. Hague 1993, p. 55
  7. Hague 1993, p. 6
  8. Hague 1993, pp. 47–48
  9. Shores et al. 2012, p. 199
  10. Hague 1993, pp. 50–51
  11. Hague 1993, pp. 52–53
  12. Hague 1993, pp. 53–55
  13. Hague 1993, pp. 51–52
  14. Mason, Geoffrey P. (2005). "HMS Deptford (L 53) - Grimsby-class Sloop". Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  15. Hague 1993, p. 45
  16. Hague 1993, pp. 43–44
  17. Hague 1993, pp. 46–47
  18. Friedman 2008, p. 332
  19. Hague 1993, p. 60
  20. Hague 1993, p. 56
  21. Hague 1993, p. 58
  22. Hague 1993, p. 61
References

References

  • Campbell, N. J. M. (1980). "Great Britain (including Empire Forces)". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 2–85. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
  • Friedman, Norman (2008). British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-015-4.
  • Gillet, Ross (1977). Warships of Australia. Graham, Colin (illus.). Adelaide, Australia: Rigby Limited. ISBN 0-7270-0472-7.
  • Hague, Arnold (1993). Sloops: A History of the 71 Sloops Built in Britain and Australia for the British, Australian and Indian Navies 1926–1946. Kendal, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-67-3.
  • Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
  • Shores, Christopher; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell (2012). A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945: Volume One: North Africa: June 1940 – January 1942. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-1-908117-07-6.
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