Not hopeful picture

Further information regarding the “Ton-class” minesweepers, built by the Montrose Shipyard Ltd in their yard at Rossie Island in the 1950s, has reached me from honorary Montrose Port Authority archivist John Aitken. He says: “The initial contract programme, totalling 118 ships built in 15 yards around the UK, was partly subsidised by the US government as part of a plan to modernise western European navies after the end of the Second World War.

“The original names of the early ships such as HMS Caunton (M1120) and HMS Chediston (M1121) were intended to form an ‘insect class’ as HMSS Golden Butterfly and Red Centipede, respectively.

“Six ‘-tons’ were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1961 and refitted in the UK with the Montrosebuilt pair becoming HMASS Curlew and Ibis (built as HMS Singleton), the latter having been broken up at Homebush Bay in Sydney.

“In addition to her RAN service she was also part of a minesweeping flotilla involved in the Indonesian confrontation with Malaysia.

“She then underwent a complicated refit at Garden Bay Dockyard when her lower hull was encased in fibre-glass in order to protect it from the ravages of tropical marine worm attack. When eventually decommissioned, her payingoff pennant was so long it took a large number of balloons to keep it aloft!

“Her retirement was not so impressive after she became a dive boat off the Great Barrier Reef. She was then found stranded on a mudbank in the Mary River in Queensland. Later refloated, she was acquired for use as a casino on the Fitzroy River at Rockhampton.

“Again, a sandbank claimed her until she was towed off by three patrol boats. In 1998 she appeared in two movies: Paradise Road and The Thin Red Line, the latter a wartime story supposedly based on the battle for Guadalcanal.

“My latest update from a former crew member in Australia does not paint a very hopeful picture as corrosion has set in to the keel and frames, fixings of the hull planking are popping out and the engines have not been run for several decades. There is also the question of a seaworthy certificate from the Tasmanian marine authorities.”