- HMS M31
HMS "M31" was an "M29" class monitor of the
Royal Navy .The availability of ten 6 inch Mk XII guns from the "Queen Elizabeth" class
battleships in 1915 prompted theAdmiralty to order five scaled down versions of the "M15" class monitors, which had been designed to utilise 9.2 inch guns. HMS "M31" and her sisters were ordered from Harland & Wolff,Belfast in March 1915. Launched onJune 24 1915 , she was completed in July 1915.Upon completion, HMS "M31" was sent to the Mediterranean, and remained there until March, 1919. She served from May to September 1919 in support of British and White Russian forces in the
White Sea , before returning to England.In September 1923, HMS "M31" was taken in hand for conversion to a
minelayer . Equipped to carry 52 mines, she was renamed HMS "Melpomene" in December 1925. She was assigned to HMS "Defiance" the Torpedo School at Devonport. In September, 1939 she was converted to a torpedo training vessel, fitted with one 21 inch torpedo tube on theforecastle .She was renamed HMS "Menelaus" in 1941, and was finally sold in 1948 and broken up at
Llanelly .References
* Young, John. A Dictionary of Ships of the Royal Navy of the Second World War. Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge, 1975. ISBN 0-85059-332-8
* Lenton, H.T. & Colledge, J. J. Warships of World War II, Ian Allen, London, 1973. ISBN 0-7110-0403-X
* Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allen, London, 1972), ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
* Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5
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