HMS ''Girdle Ness'' was a constructed for the

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 ...

that entered service in 1945. Originally named ''Penlee Point'', the vessel was designed as a

maintenance ship The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installat ...

for

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...

in the Pacific Theatre of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

but used as an

accommodation ship A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for sai ...

Rosyth Dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation i ...

. Renamed ''Girdle Ness'', the ship was taken out of service in 1953 and converted for use in support of missile trials in the development of the

Seaslug missile Seaslug was a first-generation surface-to-air missile designed by Armstrong Whitworth (later part of the Hawker Siddeley group) for use by the Royal Navy. Tracing its history as far back as 1943's LOPGAP design, it came into operational service i ...

in the early 1960s. After trials of the missile were completed, ''Girdle Ness'' was placed in reserve before becoming an accommodation ship as part of the shore establishment at Rosyth. The vessel was stricken in 1970.

Description and early service

Following setbacks in the

Pacific theatre of operations The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

which led to the loss of naval bases, the Royal Navy required more depot and repair ships for the fleet to replace shore facilities.Mitchell and Sawyer, p. 39 As part of the war construction programme, the Royal Navy ordered a series of vessels based on standard mercantile designs and modified them to fit their expected roles.Lenton and Colledge, p. 341 Repair and maintenance vessels were ordered from Canadian shipyards with the escort maintenance ships intended to service smaller types of warships, and in the case of ''Girdle Ness'',

. The ships of the class had a standard

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of and fully loaded. They were

long overall Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also u ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of .Blackman (1958), p. 79Lenton and Colledge, p. 350 The vessels were propelled by one

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

driven by a reciprocating

triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) Cylinder (engine), cylinder, then ha ...

Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler AG (formerly Foster Wheeler Inc.) was a Swiss global engineering conglomerate with its principal executive offices in Reading, UK and its registered office in Baar, Canton of Zug, Switzerland. Foster Wheeler was added to the NASD ...

water-tube boilers, creating . This gave the vessels a maximum speed of . Dominion Engineering Works of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec provided the machinery for ''Girdle Ness''. During the war, the vessels were armed with sixteen single-mounted

20 mm Oerlikon cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employ ...

s. ''Girdle Ness'' was ordered as HMS ''Penlee Point''. She was built by the Burrard Dry Dock Co. Ltd. at their yard in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada, as one of twenty-one s. These were Canadian Fort ships, similar to the US

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by American shipyards during World War II. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engin ...

s, that had been modified for use as

auxiliary ship An auxiliary ship is a naval ship designed to support combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliary ships are not primary combatant vessels, though they may have some limited combat capacity, usually for purposes of self-defense. Auxili ...

s. ''Penlee Point'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

on 7 December 1944 and launched on 29 March 1945. The ship was commissioned on 5 September 1945. The hull was completed at the South Yard of the Vancouver Dry Dock Company.Mitchell and Sawyer, p. 41 On entering service she was used as an

from 1946 to 1952, being placed in

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US v ...

in 1951.

Conversion as a trials ship

A trials ship was needed to support the

development program. Initial tests were carried out from a shore-based launcher but there was a need to test the missile under realistic conditions, and also to gain experience of handling a large missile at sea. In February 1953 ''Penlee Point'' was moved to Devonport Dockyard, Devon, for conversion into a trials ship. The conversion began in May 1953 and was completed in 1956, and she was re-commissioned as ''Girdle Ness'' on 24 July. During her conversion the entire superstructure was removed and most of the forward part of the hull gutted to provide space for the missile launcher and its attendant magazines. When she was finally completed in her new guise she had a large, boxy bridge structure, forward of which was a triple Seaslug launcher. One of the reasons why ''Girdle Ness'' was chosen for conversion was a result of a 1950 Admiralty Ship Design Policy Committee recommendation. The committee proposed that three missile-equipped types of ship would be required by the Royal Navy: : A. Task force ship, capable of 30 knots, and armed with two triple Seaslug launchers : B. Ocean convoy escort, capable of 17 knots, and armed with two triple Seaslug launchers : C. Coastal convoy escort, capable of 12 knots, and armed with a triple Seaslug launchers ''Girdle Ness'' was chosen to be a prototype for the Type C coastal convoy escort, although this idea was dropped before she came into service.

Radar equipment

Seaslug's guidance was a

beam riding Beam-riding, also known as Line-Of-Sight Beam Riding (LOSBR), beam guidance or radar beam riding is a technique of directing a missile to its target by means of radar or a laser beam. The name refers to the way the missile flies down the guidanc ...

system, with the missile following a beam projected from the launching ship. This required the installation of a large radar set, for both target acquisition, tracking and the control beam. The following equipment was installed: * Parabolic

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', 'far off', an ...

antenna * Type 901 radar * Type 960 radar * Type 983 height-finding radar * Type 982 radar

Missile trials

Seaslug was first tested at RAE Aberporth, on the Welsh coast of

Cardigan Bay Cardigan Bay () is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales. Geography Cardigan Bay ha ...

. Aberporth already hosted the land-based launcher, the

Clausen Rolling Platform The Clausen Rolling Platform was a missile launching platform, built at the coastal missile test range of RAE Aberporth, West Wales, in the 1950s. It used a floating platform in a pool of water to simulate the rolling of a ship at sea, without ...

(nicknamed "HMS ''Rock'n'Roll''"). Later trials were carried out in the Mediterranean, based on

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. Seaslug was the UK's first ship-based

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

. It used four solid boosters, then a solid sustainer rocket. Once the boosters were dropped and the sustainer fired, four large control surfaces were used to control the missile under beam-riding guidance. Seaslug was a large missile and required mechanical handling to transfer the rounds from the magazine to the trainable launcher. The large magazine was relatively highly automated for its age. During trials, the ship was crewed by a naval crew, with the missile operators being the first naval staff under training as missile operators. The recording room, staffed by civilian members of the RN Scientific Service, analysed the performance of the Seaslug. In 1959 was used for trials of

replenishment at sea Underway replenishment (UNREP) ( U.S. Navy) or replenishment at sea (RAS) (North Atlantic Treaty Organization/Commonwealth of Nations) is a method of transferring fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while under way. First devel ...

, transferring the two-ton complete missile rounds by highline transfer replenishment at sea.

Withdrawal

During the course of her life as a missile trials ship ''Girdle Ness'' fired 209 Seaslug missiles. When the trials ended, she returned to Devonport and 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 ...

on 5 December 1961. She was then reclassified as an accommodation ship, and after her return to Rosyth she was re-commissioned on 1 December 1962 and served alongside , another ''Beachy Head''-class ship, at Rosyth as part of . HMS ''Girdle Ness'' was decommissioned in early 1970 and was scrapped in

Faslane His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It ...

from August 1970 onwards. The ship's badge, a golden girdle as a trefoil knot on a blue field, is now held by the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

Citations

References

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girdle Ness, HMS Auxiliary ships of the Royal Navy Missile range instrumentation ships 1945 ships