HMS ''Plover'' was a coastal
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 ...
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 mid-1930s. She laid over 15,000
mines
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
*Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
Mi ...
during
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 ...
and remained on active duty until she was sold for
scrap
Scrap consists of 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 monetary value, especially recover ...
in 1969.
Description
''Plover'' 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
vertical triple-expansion steam engines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Steam for the engines was provided by two
water-tube boiler
A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-generat ...
s. ''Plover'' 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 ...
. The ship's complement was 69 officers and men.
[Lenton, p. 306]
The ship initially mounted two
machine guns, but after war broke out a single
12-pounder 12-pounder gun or 12-pdr, usually denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 12 pounds.
Guns of this type include:
*12-pounder long gun, the naval muzzle-loader of the Age of Sail
*Canon de 12 de Vallière, French cannon of 1732
* Can ...
(3 in (76.2 mm)) gun was added aft as well as a
Oerlikon autocannon
An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a automatic firearm, fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary ammunition, incendiary shell (projectile), shells, ...
forward. ''Plover'' was initially fitted with mine recovery gear, but her mine capacity increased from 80 to 100 after it was removed when World War II began. Sometime during the war she received a
Type 286 air warning
radar
Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
.
[
]
Career
HMS ''Plover'' was accepted by the Royal Navy on 25 September 1937 and was commissioned on the same day.[ During World War II she laid a total of 15,237 mines,][Cocker, p. 20] including two that sank the off the Belgian coast in January 1942.
Near the end of the war, the struck a mine that was part of a minefield laid by ''Plover'' on the morning of 30 April 1945, south of Lizard Point and consisted of 100 Mk XVII/XVII(8) mines.[Niestlé, A. 2010. The ‘Atlas’ Survey Zone: Deep-sea Archaeology & U-boat Loss Reassessments]
PDF
The ship was kept in service after the war[ and took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. She was sold to ]Thos. W. Ward
Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, business primarily working steel, engineering and cement. It began as coal and coke merchants. It expanded into recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, and then the supply and manufacture ...
in 1969. ''Plover'' arrived at their yard in Inverkeithing
Inverkeithing ( ; ) is a coastal town, parish and historic Royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town lies on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, northwest of Edinburgh city centre and south of Dunfermline.
A town of ancient origin, Inverke ...
, Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, in April 1969 to begin scrapping.[Lenton, p. 308]
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Plover (N26)
Minelayers of the Royal Navy
Ships built on the River Clyde
1937 ships
World War II minelayers of the United Kingdom