The Ford-class seaward defence boats were built for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
(with three built for the
South African Navy
The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force.
The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prot ...
) in the 1950s.
Development
They were designed to detect and attack hostile submarines, including midget submarines in inshore waters such as the approaches to large ports.
[Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 536.][Blackman 1971, p. 369.] They were powered by diesel engines and were planned to be armed with a single barreled
Squid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
anti-submarine mortar. This special version of the Squid was a failure however, with the first Ford-class boat, HMS ''Shalford'' being fitted with a normal three-barreled Squid and the remaining vessels with a more conventional anti-submarine armament of
depth-charge throwers. A single
Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors:
*Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s
...
gun completed the armament.
HMS ''Droxford'' served for a time as the tender for
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and
Strathclyde Universities
Royal Naval Unit, and was administered by RNR Clyde.
The vessel was used to train Midshipmen who were students of the universities and participated in fishery protection duties along the west coast of Scotland. HMS ''Beckford'' (P3104) was renamed HMS ''Dee'' and served as the tender to Liverpool University Royal Naval Unit.
Ships
* (P3101)
* (P3102) - Transferred to
Kenyan Navy
The Kenya Navy is the navy, naval branch of the Kenya Defence Forces. It is headquartered in Mombasa.
Kenya Navy has two major bases for its fleet with it being headquartered in Mtongwe Naval Base, Mombasa and Manda Bay (part of Lamu Archipela ...
as KNS ''Nyati''
* (P3103) - Transferred to
Nigerian Navy as NNS ''Kaduna''
* (P3104)
* (P3105) - Transferred to South African Navy, initially as HMSAS ''Gelderland'' - Renamed to
SAS ''Gelderland''
* (P3106) - Transferred to
Nigerian Navy as NNS ''Ibadan II''.
* (P3107)
* (P3108) - Transferred to
Royal Ceylon Navy as HMCyS ''Kotiya''
* (P3109)
* (P3111) - Transferred to
Nigerian Navy as NNS ''Bonny''
* (P3113)
* (P3114)
* (P3115) - Transferred to
Nigerian Navy as NNS ''Benin''
* (P3116)
* (P3119) - Transferred to
Nigerian Navy as NNS ''Sapele''
* (P3120) - Transferred to South African Navy, initially as HMSAS ''Nautilus'' - Renamed to
SAS ''Nautilus''
* (P3121)
* (P3122)
* (P3123) Sold in Singapore 1967.
* (P3124) - Transferred to
Nigerian Navy as NNS ''Ibadan''. Captured by
Biafra
Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a partially recognised secessionist state in West Africa that declared independence from Nigeria and existed from 1967 until 1970. Its territory consisted of the predominantly Igbo-populated form ...
n forces during the
Nigerian Civil War
The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...
and put into
Biafran navy as BNS ''Vigilance''. Sunk by Nigerian Navy on 9 October 1967 at
Port Harcourt.
* - Renamed
SAS ''Rijger''
* - Renamed
SAS ''Haerlem''
* - Renamed
SAS ''Oosterland''
References
* Blackman, Raymond V. B. ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1971–72''. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1971. .
* Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995''. Annapolis, Maryland USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford Class Seaward Defence Boat
Patrol vessels of the United Kingdom
Ship classes of the Royal Navy
Submarine chaser classes