Busy Times for HMS Cattistock

The past three years have seen Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel HMS Cattistock emerge from a low point to enjoy a busy spell with NATO forces.

And now the versatile warship is due to undergo conversion for fishery protection duties which will see her patrolling the seas around Britain, ensuring fish stocks are not damaged by over-exploitation.

The glass-reinforced plastic ship - third of the 13 Hunts built by Vosper Thornycroft at its Woolston yard in Hampshire - hit the headlines in July 1997 when she suffered and engine-room fire while south of the Isle of Wight.

As a result, the ship was lifted to Rosyth, where she underwent a 14-month repair package.

She emerged from the Scottish yard a year ago to conduct sea trials and weapon training, which paid off when she received a 'Very Satisfactory' rating at Operational Sea Training.

Last September Cattistock sailed int Brest in France to conduct a handover with HMS Sandown to join the NATO Mine Countermeasures Force North West Europe.

With the force, Cattistock participated in two major exercises, Northern Lights and Sandy Coast, and in the final two months before Christmas had a programme of 14 different port visits.

Cattistock will now be converted for fishery work.

Hunt-class vessels are built and designed to minimise the likelihood of setting off an acoustic or magnetic mine.

The plastic hull reduces the magnetic signature, while all main machinery is tuned and matched to reduce noise emissions, and great care is taken with all resilient mountings.

Cattistock and her sisters can both sweep (wires or influence) and hunt mines (using a remote-controlled submersible), and a computer-assisted system uses information from echo-sounders, sonar and satellites to give accurate and thorough coverage of a sea area or shipping lane which needs to be cleared.


Solid Service by Hunt Pair

Two ships have carried the name Cattistock before the current bearer.

The first, a 730-ton Hunt-class fleet minesweeper, was ordered in 1916 and launched in February 1917 by the Clyde Shipbuilding Company.

She joined the Queenstown Sweeping Flotilla, and less than a year later she transferred to the North Sea Sweeping Flotilla.

Cattistock remained at Grimsby for the remainder of the war, and after the Armistice she cleared mines from the North Sea and the Baltic before she was paid off into reserve early in 1920 and sold in February, 1923.

The second was one of the first Type 1 Hunt-class destroyers, launched in February 1940.

Initially sent to Scapa Flow, where she undertook convoy escort and local patrol duties, she then transferred to the Nore Command, arriving at Sheerness in September 1940 to join the 21st

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