HMS Ross

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Career
Class and type:	Hunt-class minesweeper
Name:	HMS Ross
Builder:	Lobnitz, Renfrew
Launched:	12 June 1919
Fate:	Sold for scrap 13 March 1947
General characteristics
Displacement:	710 tons
Length:	231 ft (70 m)
Beam:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Draught:	8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion:	Yarrow-type boilers, Vertical triple-expansion engines, 2 shafts, 2,200 ihp
Speed:	max 16 knots
Range:	140 tons coal
Complement:	73 men
Armament:	1 x QF 4 inch forward QF 12 pounder aft 2 x twin 0.303 inch machine guns
Notes:	Pennant number: J45

HMS Ross was a Hunt class minesweeper, built by Lobnitz and launched on 12 June 1919. She was originally called HMS Ramsey, but was renamed prior to launch. So far she has been the only ship of the Navy to bear the name Ross, in this case after the Ross hunt.

In 1940, Ross was serving with the 5th Minesweeping Flotilla. With the rest of her flotilla, she took part in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, making a number of trips and taking off more than 1,000 men. Her captain was wounded on the first trip, so her first lieutenant, Kenneth Gadd, took over command. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions and remained in command until February 1943. In 1941, Ross had a narrow escape when attacked by a German bomber a few miles out of Aberdeen: a bomb passed through her bow without exploding, leaving its tail fin behind. Ross was sold for scrapping on 13 March 1947.

[edit] References

• Daily Telegraph Obituary for Sir David Croom-Johnson
• Daily Telegraph Obituary for Commodore Kenneth Gadd
• Out Sweeps! The Story of the Minesweepers in World War II Paul Lund & Harry Ludlam, W Foulsham & Co, 1978, ISBN 0-572-01011-7
• Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.