HMS Liberty (J391)

HMS Liberty (J391) was a steam turbine-powered Algerine-class minesweeper during the Second World War. She survived the war and was sold to Belgium in 1949 as Adrien de Gerlache (M900).

Design and description
The turbine-powered ships displaced 850 LT at standard load and 1125 LT at deep load. The ships measured 225 ft long overall with a beam of 35 ft. The turbine group had a draught of 11 ft. The ships' complement consisted of 85 officers and ratings.

The ships had two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The engines produced a total of 2000 ihp and gave a maximum speed of 16.5 kn. They carried a maximum of 660 LT of fuel oil that gave them a range of 5000 nmi at 10 kn.

The Algerine class was armed with a QF 4 in Mk V anti-aircraft gun and four twin-gun mounts for Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. The latter guns were in short supply when the first ships were being completed and they often got a proportion of single mounts. By 1944, single-barrel Bofors 40 mm mounts began replacing the twin 20 mm mounts on a one for one basis. All of the ships were fitted for four throwers and two rails for depth charges.

Service in the Royal Navy
The ship was ordered on 30 April 1942 at the Harland & Wolff at Belfast, Ireland. She was laid down on 27 November 1943 and launched on 22 August 1944. She was commissioned on 18 January 1945. She joined the 10th Minesweeper Flotilla.

In April 1945, she was deployed with her flotilla for minesweeping in southern North Sea to ensure safe passage of convoys in Nore Command including military convoys to Antwerp as well as in the Thames estuary for traffic in North Sea.

In October 1945, she was deployed for mine clearance in areas near Singapore including ports in Indonesia she was later based at Hong Kong for similar duties. The ship returned to UK and arrived at Portsmouth to be decommissioned and put into the reserve fleet status in July 1946.

She was then sold to Belgium in 1949.

Service in the Belgian Navy
Liberty was renamed Adrien de Gerlache and was commissioned on 29 November 1949.

His Royal Highness Prince Baudouin in 1950 visited the Adrien de Gerlache.

In 1959, her pennant number was changed to A954.

On 19 September 1965, she departed from Ostend for the Mediterranean off Sardinia, for a NATO exercise. With stopovers in Gibraltar, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Cadiz. Return to Ostend on 28 October.

The ship was decommissioned on 11 June 1970 and sold for to Mr. Bakker P.V.B.A, Bruges for scrap in 1970.

The superstructure is part of the Belgian Naval Academy in Brugge.