HMS Gretna

HMS Gretna was a Hunt-class minesweeper built for the Royal Navy during World War I. Completed in 1918, the ship was sold for scrap in 1928.

Design and description

The Aberdare sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced at normal load and at full load. They measured long overall with 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 QF six-pounder () Hotchkiss guns or QF three-pounder () Hotchkiss guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.

Construction and career

Gretna, the first ship of her name in the Royal Navy, was built by Joseph R. Eltringham at their shipyard in South Shields. The ship was launched on 11 April 1918. She was sold in 3 October 1928 to Alloa Shipbreaking Company to be broken up in Rosyth.