HMS Maidstone (1937)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Maidstone.

HMS Maidstone in the harbour of Algiers. Alongside are HMS Safari and HMS Sahib
Career
Class and type:	Submarine Depot Ship
Name:	HMS Maidstone
Builder:	John Brown & Company - Clydebank
Laid down:	17 August 1936
Launched:	21 October 1937
Commissioned:	5 May 1938
Reclassified:	Internment Holding area, 1970s
Fate:	Scrapped May 1978
General characteristics
Displacement:	8,900 tons
Length:	497 ft (151 m)
Beam:	73 ft (22 m)
Speed:	17 knots
Complement:	1167 men
Armament:	8 x 4.5" DP guns (4x2) 8 x 2pdr AA (2x4)

HMS Maidstone was a submarine depot ship of the Royal Navy.

Facilities

She was built to support the increasing numbers of submarines, especially on distant stations, such as the Mediterranean and the Pacific Far East. Her equipment included a foundry, coppersmiths, plumbers and carpenters shops, heavy and light machine shops, electrical and torpedo repair shops and plants for charging submarine batteries. She was designed to look after nine operational submarines, supplying over 100 torpedoes and a similar number of mines. Besides large workshops, there were repair facilities for all material in the attached submarines and extensive diving and salvage equipment was carried. There were steam laundries, a cinema, hospital, chapel, two canteens, a bakery, barber's shop, and a fully equipped operating theatre and dental surgery.

Career

Wartime

In September 1939 Maidstone was Depot Ship to the ten submarines of the 1st Submarine Flotilla. In March 1941 she went to Gibraltar. From November 1942, Maidstone was based at Algiers Harbour, the main Allied base in the Mediterranean. In November 1943 she was assigned to the Eastern Fleet. In September 1944 Maidstone and the 8th Submarine Flotilla were transferred from Ceylon to Fremantle in Western Australia to operate in the Pacific. In late 1945 Maidstone left Fremantle, and en-route to the UK, docked in the Selborne dry dock at Simonstown, South Africa. While on passage, she was diverted to Macassar to pick up 400 British naval prisoners of war from HMS Exeter, HMS Encounter and HMS Stronghold. In November she arrived at Portsmouth.

Postwar

In 1946 Maidstone became mother to the 2nd and 7th Submarine Flotillas. The 2nd Flotilla comprised operational boats, the latter a trials and training squadron. Maidstone had a semi-permanent mooring off Monkey Island (Portland) but often put to sea with her brood. In 1951 Maidstone called briefly at Corunna to land a sick rating, but this was not classified an official visit, although it was the first time a British ship had entered a Spanish harbour since the Spanish Civil War. On 16 June 1955 the submarine HMS Sidon sank in Portland harbour alongside Maidstone 20 minutes after an explosion in the forward torpedo compartment. A rescue party from Maidstone saved a number of the Sidon's crew, but 13 died. A week later, the submarine was raised and the accident was found to be caused by the high-test peroxide fuel in a torpedo.

In 1956 Maidstone was Flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet. In September 1957, the Russians protested when Maidstone accompanied the training aircraft carrier HMS Ocean on a visit to Helsinki. In 1959 Maidstone received an extensive refit to accommodate nuclear submarines, the 2nd Flotilla was then moved to Devonport. Approx 1961 Maidstone was moved to Garelochead where she was the Depot ship to submarines. In 1965 she undertook a trip to Liverpool and a further trip back to Liverpool one year later. She also undertook a trip to Rothesay during this period and then in 1967 she was moved to Rosyth Dockyard to undertake preparations to "mothball" her.

Belfast

In October 1969 Maidstone was restored and re-commissioned as accommodation for 2,000 troops and sent to Belfast. In 1969 she arrived under tow at Belfast to serve as barracks for the increased security forces in the area. In 1971, she was used as a prison ship in Operation Demetrius as a place to hold internees without trial, including Gerry Adams .The holding area itself was at the stern and consisted of two bunkhouses, one up, one down, and two messrooms. Above these were the rooms of the governor and his staff and above this was the deck, used twice a day for exercise. The deck was surrounded by 10-foot-high barbed wire. She was moored in Belfast harbour 20 feet from the land, entry to the jetty being guarded by sand-bagged army emplacements.^[1] The Maidstone was also notable for a successful escape by seven Provisional IRA members in 1972. The men swam close to 300 yards through icy water and evaded army and police only to later hold a triumphant press conference.^[2]

Fate

On 23 May 1978 Maidstone was broken up for scrap at the Thomas Ward scrapyard Inverkeithing.

See also

• HMS Al Rawdah
• HMS Argenta
• HMS Medway

References

1. ^ HMS Maidstone, Uboat.net
2. ^ Desmond Hamill, Pig in the Middle - The Army in Northern Ireland, 1969-1984 (London: Methuen London Ltd., 1985), 95.

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.