HMS ''Gleaner'' was one of 21 s built 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 ...

in the 1930s.

Design and description

The ''Halcyon'' class designed as a replacement for the preceding Hunt class and varied in size and propulsion. ''Gleaner'' displaced at

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

load and at

deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...

. The ship had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , 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 . She was powered by two Parsons geared

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

s, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two

Admiralty three-drum boiler Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power Steamship, ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although ...

s. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . ''Gleaner'' carried a maximum of of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...

that gave her a range of at . The ship's complement consisted of 80 officers and ratings. ''Gleaner'' was armed with two QF 4-inch (10.2 cm)

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

s. She was also equipped with eight machine guns. Later in her career, the rear 4-inch gun mount was removed as were most of the .303 machine guns, one quadruple mount for

Vickers .50 machine gun The Vickers .5 inch machine gun (officially "Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-in") also known as the Vickers .50 was a large-calibre British automatic weapon. The gun was commonly used as a close-in anti-aircraft weapon on Royal Navy and Allied ships, ...

s was added as were up to four single or twin mounts for

20 mm Oerlikon 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 ...

AA guns. For escort work, her minesweeping gear could be exchanged for around 40

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

Construction and career

''Gleaner'' was completed by

William Gray & Company William Gray & Company Ltd. was a British shipbuilding company located in West Hartlepool, County Durham, in North East England. Founded in 1863 by John Denton and William Gray as a partnership, it became a private and then a public limited compa ...

Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...

, as a survey vessel, but she was converted into a minesweeper when the war began. On 12 February 1940, ''Gleaner'' sank German U-boat ''U-33'' () using depth charges and deck gun in the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...

. The captain was Lt.Cdr. H. P. Price, RN. The British seized some materials from the U-boat, including

Enigma machine The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...

rotors VI and VII, whose wirings were unknown at the time. The seizure was one of the "pinches" that aided the

cryptanalysis of the Enigma Cryptanalysis of the Enigma ciphering system enabled the western Allies of World War II, Allies in World War II to read substantial amounts of Morse code, Morse-coded radio communications of the Axis powers that had been enciphered using Enigm ...

.https://www.scottishshipwrecks.com/u-33/ The British merchant ship ''Astra II'' was torpedoed and sunk. The ship rescued 20 survivors on 29 August 1940 (). ''Gleaner'' rescued 68 survivors from the torpedoed '' Empire Tourist'' on 4 March 1944 (). She was sold for scrap in 1950.

References

Bibliography

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External links

HMS Gleaner (J 83) of the Royal Navy - British Minesweeper of the Halcyon class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net
HMS ''Gleaner'' (J 83) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gleaner (J83) Halcyon-class minesweepers 1937 ships World War II minesweepers of the United Kingdom Cold War minesweepers of the United Kingdom