HMS Bridgewater (L01)

250px HMS Bridgewater, stationary.
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Bridgewater
Namesake:	Town of Bridgwater
Owner:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	19 September 1927
Builder:	Hawthorne Leslie, Newcastle upon Tyne
Laid down:	6 February 1928
Launched:	14 September 1928
Commissioned:	14 March 1929
Out of service:	22 May 1947
Honours and awards:	North Sea 1942 Atlantic 1942-43
Fate:	Broken up by Howells for demolition at Gellesick Bay
Badge:	On a Field Gold, three castles on a bridge, all Silver, below a star and a fleur-de-lys Gold.
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,045 tons
Length:	250 ft (76 m)
Beam:	34 ft (10 m)
Speed:	17 kn (31 km/h)
Armament:	2 x 4 in guns

HMS Bridgewater (L01) was a Bridgewater-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Bridgewater was built by Hawthorne Leslie, Newcastle and entered service in 1929, serving through the Second World War.

Construction and design

HMS Bridgewater was ordered from Hawthorne Leslie on 19 September 1927, one of two Bridgwater-class sloops ordered from Hawthorn Leslie that day. The Bridgewaters were intended as replacements for the Flower-class sloops, and were to combine the role of peacetime patrol work at distant overseas stations (with the Bridgewaters being specifically intended for service in the Persian Gulf) with a wartime role as minesweepers.

Bridgewater was 266 feet 4 inches (81.18 m) long overall and 250 feet (76 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 34 feet (10 m) and a draught of 11 feet 5 inches (3.48 m). Displacement was 1,045 long tons (1,062 t) standard and 1,600 long tons (1,600 t) full load. Two Admiralty three-drum boilers fed steam turbines, producing 2,000 shaft horsepower (1,500 kW) and driving two propeller shafts, giving a design speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph). Main gun armament was two QF 4 inch Mk V naval guns on the ship's centreline, one forward and one aft, with the forward gun on a high-angle mount, capable of anti-aircraft fire and the second gun on a low angle mount, for anti-surface use only. Two 3-pounder saluting guns were also carried, while anti-submarine armament consisted initially of four depth charges. The ship's crew consisted of 96 officers and men.

Bridgewater was laid down at Hawthorne Leslie's Tyneside shipyard on 6 February 1928 and was launched, without ceremony, on 14 September 1928. Bridgewater reached a speed of 17.24 knots (31.93 km/h; 19.84 mph) during sea trials and was commissioned on 14 March 1929.

In 1938, the aft 4 inch gun was replaced by one on a high-angle mounting and the two saluting guns were removed, allowing two quadruple Vickers .50 machine gun mounts to be fitted. By the outbreak of the Second World War, the ship had been fitted with Sonar, and the depth charge outfit increased to 15 charges.

Service

While ordered for service in the Persian Gulf, both Bridgewater and sister ship Sandwich were first deployed to the China Station. In early August 1930, Bridgewater ferried troops of the Green Howards to Hankou, formerly site of a British concession, in response to threats posed by the fighting of the Central Plains War to foreigners. In 1931 Bridgewater, along with the survey ships Herald and Iroquois carried out a survey of the shallow area of the South China Sea known as the Dangerous Ground as part of a search for potential secret seaplane bases in case of war. In August 1931 she took part in the search for the missing cargo ship Kwong Sang, which had been sunk by a typhoon off Taichow Island.

Bridgewater remaining on the China station until 1935, when she joined the Africa Station (later known as the South Atlantic Station), spending most of her time based at Freetown, Sierra Leone.