HMS Foxglove during World War I. |
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| Career (United Kingdom) | |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Acacia-class sloop |
| Name: | HMS Foxglove |
| Namesake: | The foxglove |
| Builder: | Barclay Curle, Glasgow, Scotland |
| Launched: | 30 March 1915 |
| Commissioned: | 1915 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping 7 September 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Minesweeping sloop |
| Displacement: | 1,200 tons |
| Length: | 250 ft (76 m) p/p 262 ft 6 in (80.01 m) o/a |
| Beam: | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Draught: | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 × 4-cylinder triple expansion engine 2 × cylindrical boilers 1 screw |
| Speed: | Designed for 1,400 or 1,800 hp to make 17 knots (31 km/h), but actually required about 2200 indicated horsepower for this speed |
| Range: | 2,000 nmi (3,700 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h) with max. 250 tons of coal |
| Complement: | 77 |
| Armament: | Designed to mount 2 × 12-pdr (76 mm) guns and 2 × 3 pdr (47 mm) AA guns, but with wide variations |
HMS Foxglove was an Acacia-class minesweeping sloop of the Royal Navy built at Glasgow, Scotland, by Barclay Curle and launched on 30 March 1915.[1][2] She entered service later that year. During World War I, she and the other Acacia-class sloops were used almost exclusively for minesweeping duties until 1917, when the Royal Navy began to use them as convoy escorts, a task to which they were well suited.[2]
Foxglove served on the China Station during the early 1920s.[3] In 1921, she joined the Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Carlisle and the commercial steamer SS Shansi in rescuing survivors of the passenger steamship SS Hong Moh, which had wrecked on 3 March 1921 near Swatow, China, with a loss of around 1,000 lives; Carlisle rescued 221 survivors, while Shansi saved 45 and Foxglove 28.[4]
Foxglove was one of only two Acacia-class sloops to survive long enough to see service in World War II.[2] She became a loss when she was dive-bombed and badly damaged by German aircraft off the Isle of Wight on 9 July 1940. She remained afloat, and was converted into an accommodation ship and base ship.[5] In this new role, she became a harbor guard ship in 1941,[6] serving at Londonderry (also known as Derry) in Northern Ireland for the remainder of World War II.[7]
The last surviving Acacia-class sloop,[2] Foxglove was sold for scrapping on 7 September 1946. She was scrapped at Troon, Scotland.[6]
Foxglove's logbook is among those that was selected for digitisation as part of the online Old Weather project.[8]
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