HMS Morpeth Castle (K693)

HMS Morpeth Castle was one of 44 Castle-class corvette built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was named after Morpeth Castle in Morpeth. Completed in 1943, she was used as a convoy escort during the war and was scrapped in August 1960.

Design and description
The Castle-class corvette was a stretched version of the preceding Flower class, enlarged to improve seakeeping and to accommodate modern weapons. The ships displaced 1010 LT at standard load and 1510 LT at deep load. They had an overall length of 252 ft, a beam of 36 ft and a deep draught of 14 ft. They were powered by a pair of triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The engines developed a total of 2880 ihp and gave a maximum speed of 16.5 kn. The Castles carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 6500 nmi at 15 kn. The ships' complement was 99 officers and ratings.

The Castle-class ships were equipped with a single QF 4 in Mk XVI gun forward, but their primary weapon was their single three-barrel Squid anti-submarine mortar. This was backed up by one depth charge rail and two throwers for 15 depth charges. The ships were fitted with two twin and a pair of single mounts for 20 mm Oerlikon light AA guns. Provision was made for a further four single mounts if needed. They were equipped with Type 145Q and Type 147B ASDIC sets to detect submarines by reflections from sound waves beamed into the water. A Type 277 search radar and a HF/DF radio direction finder rounded out the Castles' sensor suite.

Construction and career
Morpeth Castle was laid down by William Pickersgill & Sons at their shipyard at Sunderland, on 23 June 1943 and launched on 26 November 1943. She was completed in July 1944 and served as a convoy escort. She was decommissioned and scrapped on 9 August 1960, at Llanelly.