Bangor-class minesweeper

The Bangor-class minesweepers were a class of warships operated by the Royal Navy (RN), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), and Royal Indian Navy (RIN) during the Second World War.

The class derives its name from the lead ship, HMS Bangor (J00), which was launched on 19 February 1940 and commissioned on 7 November of that year. Royal Navy ships were named after coastal towns of the United Kingdom.

Their lack of size gave vessels of the class poor sea handling abilities, reportedly worse even than the Flower-class corvettes. The diesel-engined versions were considered to have poorer handling characteristics than the slow-speed reciprocating-engined variants. Their shallow draught made them unstable and their short hulls tended to bury the bow when operating in a head sea.

The Bangor-class vessels were also considered overcrowded, cramming six officers and over 90 ratings into a vessel originally intended for a total of 40.

Design and development
The original intent of the Bangor-class minesweeper design was to provide a coastal equivalent of the Halcyon-class minesweeper; however the realities brought to light by the start of the war caused a modification of the design before construction had started.

The need for quick construction coupled with the limitations of engineering resources resulted in several variations existing based on the availability of propulsion machinery. The ships all had twin screws, but the machinery was a mix of steam turbine, slow-speed steam reciprocating, high-speed steam reciprocating and diesel. The diesel powered examples were about 20 ft shorter than the rest as they had no need for boiler rooms. Displacement varied with propulsion machinery from 590 to 672 tons. The reciprocating engine powered Bangors were also known as the Blyth class and the steam turbine powered versions as the Ardrossan class.

The class was considered cramped for the purposes it was built for, with not enough room provided for the acoustic and magnetic minesweeping gear carried.

References and notes

 * Warships of World War II, by H. T. Lenton & J. J. Colledge, pub. Ian Allan Ltd.