Ley class minesweeper

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This page is incomplete but represents the sum of currently available knowledge.

The Ley class ships were built for the Royal Navy in the mid 1950s. They were numbered in the series M 2001.

They were not equipped for sweeping moored or magnetic mines. Their work was therefore, that of the then new class, the inshore minehunters.

Of composite construction, they displaced 164 tons fully laden. Armament was 1 x 40 mm Bofors gun. Engines were Paxman diesels.

The constructional materials

They were built of wood but it is hard to tell what else. The construction material quoted by Jane's 1953 is "composite". The Ham class was similar to the Ley class but said by Jane's 1953 to be of wood. The material quoted for HMS Bassingham (Ham class) by her former commanding officer, was "wood and non-metallic material" but this may be a journalist's confusing 'metallic' and 'magnetic'. The material quoted for the Ley class, by the original writer of this article was wood and non-magnetic metal.

The date is early for glass fibre and resin though that was fairly established by 1957. The difference between the Ham class and the Ley class seems to lie in this difference between wood and composite - wood and something non-magnetic. The non-magnetic characteristic is of course, important in a vessel dealing with mines, some of which are exploded by the proximity of a magnetic field.

Taking all this and a little knowledge of British boat building of the late 1950s, it may be possible to speculate that they were of double diagonal mahogany planking on an internal structure of non-magnetic (stainless) steel, probably with bulkheads and perhaps decks of marine plywood (BS 1088).

The class was a development of the Ham class and was quite small in numbers, only 10 or 11 being built (11 are listed in Jane's 1953). Externally, they were the same. They were designed for river and estuarine use. Some were subsequently disarmed and used as Training Vessels.

The ships

Jane's 1953 lists the class as:

HMS Aveley
HMS Brearley
HMS Brenchley
HMS Brinkley
HMS Broadley
HMS Broomley
HMS Burley
HMS Chailey
HMS Cradley
HMS Dingley
HMS Edgeley

References

Blackman, R.V.B Jane's Fighting Ships 1953-54 (1953)
[Bassingham web site]: click on HMS Bassingham

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