HMS ''Abdiel'' was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for ins ...

that saw service during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. ''Abdiel'' was ordered from

Thornycroft Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977. History In 1896, naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company which built its f ...

in June 1965. She was laid down at Thornycroft's Woolston shipyard on 23 May 1966Moore 1985, p. 630. and launched 22 January 1967. She was commissioned on 17 October 1967. Her

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

was N21.

Minelayer

''Abdiel'' was designated by the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

as an "exercise minelayer" and her official role was to train Royal Navy personnel in minelaying operations using test/dummy naval mines, not to lay offensive mines operationally. She was fully capable of laying offensive mines during wartime.

MCM support ship

''Abdiel'' fulfilled an additional role as a support ship for

mine countermeasure vessel A mine countermeasures vessel or MCMV is a type of naval ship designed for the location of and destruction of naval mines which combines the role of a minesweeper and minehunter in one hull. The term MCMV is also applied collectively to minehunte ...

s. She served in this capacity with the Armilla Patrol from 1987 to 1988. During this deployment, the air conditioning units aboard ship proved insufficient for the climate and additional units had to be dispatched.

Refits

* 1977 * 1981

Paid off

''Abdiel'' was

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship i ...

in 1988 and sold for

scrapping Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have Waste valorization, mone ...

. After her disposal, the Royal Navy had no dedicated minelaying vessel, although provisions were made for "suitably modified vessels" to undertake the work as required. In 1987 her commanding officer spoke with Raymond Baxter at the 1987 Festival of Remembrance in a segment about Royal Navy modes of communication

Media

''Abdiel'' appears in the Royal Navy instructional film 'Minelaying' (Admiralty catalogue no. A2788) produced in 1976. Classified as restricted at the time of its release, the film is now unrestricted and available on archive DVD collections and the Internet.

References

* Couhat, Jean Labayle and A.D. Baker. ''Combat Fleets of the World 1986/87''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1986. . * Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995''. Annapolis, Maryland USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. . * Moore, John. ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1985–86''. London: Jane's Yearbooks, 1985. .

External links

HMS ''Abdiel'' Facebook page

"British Minesweepers" TV news report

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

, 29 September 1987 {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdiel (N21) Minelayers of the Royal Navy Cold War mine warfare vessels of the United Kingdom Ships built in Southampton 1967 ships Ships built by John I. Thornycroft & Company