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IN her short life, HMS Shoreham (M112) has already seen
action in the Gulf.
The last batch 2 Sandown Class Mine Counter Measures Vessel
to be built for the Royal Navy (accepted in 2001), she went
alongside Umm Qasr, southern Iraq as part of Operation Telic
and conducted riverine operations up the Shatt al Arab waterway
leading to the port of Umm Qasr.
During her five-month stint last year, Shoreham also carried
out live operations searching for missiles fired at Kuwait
which landed in Kuwait Harbour and, with the Canadian Navy,
looked for unexploded torpedoes in the Gulf region.
Built almost entirely from non-magnetic materials (predominantly
fibreglass) to keep her magnetic signature low, Shoreham
is claimed to be the world’s most capable and sophisticated
minehunter.
The Sandown class was fitted with a revolutionary new design
of minehunting sonar, designed to find Soviet projectile
warhead weapons in deep submarine transit lanes.
Capable of achieving up to 90 per cent probability of detection,
the Sandown can minehunt to the Continental Shelf to a depth
of 200 metres.
Shoreham is fitted with a remote control mine disposal vehicle
(colloquially known as a ‘PAP’) to identify and
dispose of mines.
The PAP has an in-built very short range sonar, monochrome
and colour video cameras and a searchlight.
Launched from the ship’s stern, the vehicle is driven by the minehunting
director from the operations room.
Also essential to the task of identification and dispersal are the Sandown class’s
six fully-qualified RN clearance divers, capable of diving to depths of 60-80
metres.
Using a computer-controlled propulsion and maneouvring system, Shoreham is capable
of maintaining an exact position - essential in the middle of a minefield.The
ship can also be manoeuvred accurately by using a portable joystick from various
positions on board.
During defence watches, the mine warfare officer will be in the ops room attempting
to classify sonar contacts and do PAP runs, whilst the gunnery/navigation officer
will be on the bridge fighting the ship or keeping it navigationally safe.
The captain will be roving or in the ops room. Two mine warfare ratings will
be in the ops room or on the crane deck, launching and recovering the PAPS, assisted
by the clearance divers - who might also be preparing to dive on contacts.
Four meals are prepared during the defence watches (normally running 2-8 or 8-2).
A tiring routine, perhaps, but hunting is generally only for between 14 and 20
days at one time.
The current Shoreham is the fifth Royal Naval ship to bear the name. Other versions
have ranged from a 32-gun ‘one-and-a-half’ decked ship built in 1694
to the vessel launched in 1930 which gained three battle honours for service
in World War II.
Though Shoreham was first built in her eponymous town, the fourth was laid down
in Devonport.
Initially armed with twin four inch guns, by the end of World War II she could
also boast two quadruple 0.5in, three 20mm and a two-pounder pompom as anti-aircraft
armament.
After participating in the occupation of the Gulf oil port of Adadan, Shoreham
served as an anti-aircraft ship at Suez, then to the Eastern Fleet at Colombo.
In 1943 she went to Alexandria and the Levant before taking part in the invasion
of Sicily. After re-joining the Eastern Fleet, she returned to her pre-war role
in the Persian Gulf, but was ordered home in 1946 to pay off for her disposal.
Shoreham was broken up in 1950, before her name was to be revived just over half
a century later.
(Ship of the Month March 2004)
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