HMS Elgin (J39)

HMS Elgin was a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Aberdare sub-class built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War. A mine badly damaged her in 1944; she was sold for scrap in 1945.

Design and description

The Aberdare sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships and carried more powerful armament. The ships displaced at normal load. They had a length between perpendiculars of, and measured long overall. The Aberdares had a beam of and a draught of. The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.
The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Yarrow boilers. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of. They carried a maximum of of coal which gave them a range of at.
The Aberdare sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) gun forward of the bridge and a QF twelve-pounder anti-aircraft gun aft. Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.

Construction and career

HMS Elgin was built by the William Simons & Company at their shipyard in Renfrew. She was originally to be named Troon, but was renamed before launch to avoid possible misunderstandings of having vessels named after coastal locations. On 4 May 1944, Elgin was nine miles east of the Isle of Portland, when she triggered an acoustic mine that damaged her severely. She was towed to Portsmouth where she was scrapped in 1945.