Name: HMS SPEEDY
Operator: Royal Navy; Builder: William Hamilton & Co. / J. S. White & Co.; Laid down: 1 December 1937; Launched: 23 November 1938; Commissioned: 7 April 1939; Fate: Sold 5 November 1946, scrapped 1957; Notes: Pennant = N17 / J17
General characteristics:
Class and type: Halcyon-class minesweeper, Displacement: 815–835 long tons (828–848 t), 1,310–1,372 long tons (1,330–1,394 t), full load, Length: 245 ft 3 in (74.75 m), Beam: 33 ft 6 in (10.21 m), Draught: 9 ft (2.7 m), Propulsion: Vertical triple-expansion, 2,000 ihp, Speed: 17 knots (31 km/h), Range: 7,200 nmi (13,330 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h), Complement: 80, Armament: 2 x QF 4 in Mk.V (L/45 102 mm) guns, single mounts HA Mk.III, 4 x QF 0.5 in Mk.III (12.7 mm) Vickers machine guns, quad mount HA Mk.I, 8 x 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis machine guns
HMS SPEEDY was a Halcyon-class minesweeper that saw service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was built by William Hamilton & Co. at Port Glasgow, Scotland and completed at J. S. White & Co. at Cowes, Isle of Wight. She was commissioned in 1939. Her pennant number was N 17, later J 17.
HMS SPEEDY (J17) was completed in April 1939. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was at Scapa with the Home Fleet, and was employed in home and northern waters during the first two and a half years of hostilities. In October 1941, she assisted in escorting one of the first convoys (PQ2) to Archangel, North Russia. The convoy arrived without loss. Based in Murmansk, she then took part in various minesweeping and anti-submarine operations in North Russian waters until January 1942. On the night of 17 December 1941, while engaged on an anti-submarine sweep in company with HAZARD she was attacked by four large German destroyers (Z23, Z24, Z25 and Z27) 14 miles North-by-East of Cape Gorodetski. Although hit, she managed to make off in poor visibility. SPEEDY arrived at Scapa on 14 January 1942, proceeding thereafter for repairs and a refit in a London shipyard. In April, she escorted another Russian convoy (PQ14), but on the 12th was damaged by ice and was repaired at Immingham.
Her next service was escorting an important Malta convoy ('Harpoon') to the Mediterranean. On 15 June 1942 one of the convoy, the British tanker KENTUCKY was disabled by aircraft. SPEEDY took her in tow, but owing to the risks involved in delaying the convoy KENTUCKY had to be sunk. For more than twelve months SPEEDY remained at Malta, and after the Allied invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) in November 1942, helped to sweep the route of the supply convoys which afforded such welcome relief to the island.
On 15 May 1943, whilst engaged in clearing the Malta North-Eastern Channel, she was severely damaged by a mine four miles off St Elmo Light, and was towed into Malta harbour with twelve casualties including two killed and two missing. After temporary repairs she returned to England in August 1943, and was paid off at Sheerness Dockyard, until the end of March 1944. Unfortunately, recurrent defects kept her in dockyard hands from early June until late September 1944, during which time she was operational for just three days.
During the summer of 1944 she operated from Portsmouth with the First Minesweeping Flotilla sweeping the Army supply channels to France. By October, as the Army advanced on the Continent and Antwerp fell, SPEEDY and the 1st MSF were moved to Harwich to open new swept channels to the Scheldt. In December, SPEEDY was withdrawn and proceeded to Leith for repairs, but returned to her Flotilla at Harwich in May 1945, just as the war ended in Europe.
SPEEDY took part in mine clearance operations in the North Sea after the end of the War but was paid off in June 1946 and sold into the merchant service on 5th November of the same year. Renamed the SPEEDON she was scrapped in Aden in 1957.
Sources: Wikipedia. http://www.halcyon-class.co.uk/speedy/hms_speedy.htm.
Information Mr P Crichton