HMS Rosario (J219)

HMS Rosario (J219) was a steam turbine-powered Algerine-class minesweeper during the Second World War. She survived the war and was sold to Belgium in 1953 as De Moor (M905).

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 15 November 1940 at the Harland & Wolff at Belfast, Ireland. She was laid down on 22 September 1942 and launched on 3 April 1943. She was commissioned on 9 July 1943. S

Rosario was decommissioned in 1947.

She was then sold to Belgium in 1953.

Service in the Belgian Navy
Rosario was renamed De Moor and was commissioned on 15 January 1953.

On 4 April 1967, the ship left Oostende for Australia on a 6 month scientific expedition. She made multiple port calls to Tunis, Port Said, Massawa, Colombo, Djakarta, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Gladstone, Townsville, Darwin, Singapore, Cochin, Diego Suarez, Cape town, Abidjan and Tenerife. She returned back to Oostende on 20 February 1968. The ship had to return via South Africa due to the ongoing War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel.

The ship was decommissioned in 1969 and sold for scrap in Bruges, 1970.