Shipbucket

HMS Ariadne was an Abdiel-class minelayer of the Royal Navy. (From Wiki)

She was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Glasgow, Scotland. She was laid down on 15 November 1941, launched on 16 February 1943 and commissioned on 9 October 1943.

Service history.

Her first duty was to lay mines off the coast of Norway. She was also one of the ships taking part in Operation Stonewall. She then left Home waters in January 1944 to join the United States Seventh Fleet in the Pacific Ocean theatre of war. In June 1944 she laid 146 mines off the northern coast of New Guinea, and when landings were made in the Mapia Group of islands in November 1944, Ariadne was used to carry US Army soldiers. During her period of active service she laid 1,352 mines.

After the end of the war, Ariadne was used to repatriate British prisoners of war from Japan and as a mailship due to her speed. She was paid off into the Reserve Fleet at Sheerness, and did not see service again, apart from a short trial after a refit in the 1950s. This involved the replacement of her light anti-aircraft guns with more modern weapons. She was finally sold to W.H. Arnott Young for scrapping and arrived at Dalmuir in February 1965. She was then scrapped at Dalmuir and Troon in June 1965.



Name: HMS Ariadne
Builder: Alexander Stephen and Sons, Glasgow, Scotland
Laid down: 15 Nov 1941
Launched: 16 Feb 1943
Commissioned: 9 Oct 1943 [1][2]
Identification: Pennant number M65
Fate: scrapped in June 1965

General characteristics

Class & type: Abdiel-class minelayer
Displacement: 2,650 tons (standard)
4,000 tons (full load)

Length: 418 ft (127 m)
Beam: 40 ft (12 m)
Draught: 16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion: Two shafts
Geared turbines
four Admiralty 3-drum boilers
72,000 shp

Speed: 40 knots (74 km/h)
Complement: 242
Armament: 4 × 4 inch AA guns (2×2)
4 × Bofors 40 mm gun (2×2)
12 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon (6×2)
160 Naval mines


I do have the original Matchbox 1/700 Ariadne with the camouflage details, but it is in a box that I have not unpacked yet, once I get the Instruction Sheet with the details I will do another version with the camouflage.

Very nice! A beautiful illustration of one of the fastest warships ever built.

Very nice work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Great work Nigel. Hoping to see the camouflaged Ariadne soonest, as well as the original name sake of the class HMS Abdiel.
Also there is the HMS Welshman (M84) camouflaged so that she looked like a French destroyer (three funnels, and a painted forecastle break)

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Thanks for the comments guys.

Novice: I would like to follow the whole class from Abdiel to Manxman of the late 60's, but I do not have the drawings and resources to do so. I do have a picture of Welshman with the French funnel caps and other bits of the disguise. Might be a couple of weeks before I can finally unpack some of my boxes with resource materials, I have been waiting since February for the renovation work on the house to get completed.

Very nice work, nice to see this famous class represented in the archive.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Great addition!

Just beautiful. Will you do the HMS Apollo too? BTW your badge is taking form

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Work in progress:
DD County Class PNS Babur (1982)(PAK)
FF Type 21 Class D182 PNS Babur (2000)(PAK)
All relevant Coat of Arms

Thank you Kim, I will not put it in the upload thread till your superb badge turns up.

I would love to do all of them - if someone has the plans and details of the other members of the class I would love to have the information.

There is a new book on the Abdiels: "Very Special Ships" by Arthur Nicholson Seaforth/Naval Institute Press
Also Manxman disguised as "Essen" for a film. http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=1540006