HMS Badminton (1918)

HMS Badminton was a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Aberdare sub-class built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1928.

Design and description
The Aberdare sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced 800 LT at normal load. They had a length between perpendiculars of 220 ft and measured 231 ft long overall. The Aberdares had a beam of 26 ft and a draught of 7 ft. The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.

The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Yarrow boilers. The engines produced a total of 2200 ihp and gave a maximum speed of 16 kn. They carried a maximum of 185 LT of coal which gave them a range of 1500 nmi at 15 kn.

The Aberdare sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) 4 in gun forward of the bridge and a QF twelve-pounder (76.2 mm) anti-aircraft gun aft. Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.

Construction and career
HMS Badminton was built by the Ardrossan Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Company and launched on 18 March 1918. Badminton was listed as part of the 7th (North Sea) Minesweeping Flotilla, based at Grimsby at the end of the war. After the war ended, the 7th Flotilla, including Badminton, was deployed to Ijmuiden in the Netherlands to help to clear the large German minefields off the Dutch coast. In the early 1920s, Badminton took part in coastal patrols off Ireland, mainly in supply and support role to Coastguard stations, but also targeting possible gun smuggling.