NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 199321
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stic Ton lookalike, HMS i a Royal Navy task force o clear the Suez Canal of :'wing the Egyptian-Israeli ent. tar Bossinglon and Wilton he Middle East - this time Gavinton and Brinton to lionel force tasked to clear un the Gulf of Suez and
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The Prince of Wales arrives to command Bronlngton.
The mines had been sown by an officially unknown source with the obvious Intention of further destabilising the region. They had damaged 20 ships before countermeasures could be taken. That operation was a great success for the Navy and for the Tons, but perhaps the most famous event for the class came when the Prince of Wales took command of the Rosyth-based HMS Bronlngton In 1976.
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a*jS ssington makes a splash during the operation to 8 ordnance from the Suez Canal,
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- this time to deal with mystery mines in the Red Sea, mines Bosslngton returns to the Middle East that had already damaged a score of merchant ships.
In that year Navy News reported in its February edition: "Some ships achieve glory, others have glory thrust upon them ... and while not wishing to 'poke Charlie' at HMS Bronington, the mine countermeasures vessel may never have come to the ellentlon of the general public had Lieut. the Prince of Wales not been appointed her commanding officer. "Nevertheless, Prince Charles' take-
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over of command this month is a great tribute to a wonderful class of ship." Although by that decade the Tons had already greatly diminished in number (Coniston herself had been sold for scrap in 1970), their durability is remarkable. And though the Navy is marking the departure of Sheraton and Brinton with its tribute to the class's 40 years of service, one true Ton vessel remains - HMS Nurton, while the similarly designed Wilton
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continues as Dartmouth training ship. And in far-flung parts of the world other survivors sail on. At last count South Africa was operating a few of the design, - Stratincluding three former RN ships ton (now Kimberley), Packington (Walvisbeal), and Chilton (East London). One of their surviving Tons, Windhoek, was built specially for them by Thornycroft in 1959.
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HMS B,int,,n heads south 1rom Rosyth while she was still the Royal Navy's oldest commissioned warship afloat. On her superstructure she sports her banana emblem which originates from 1974 when Lieut. Hopkins was in command. Lieut. Hopkins (now Capt. Hopkins and former Captain Fishery Protection), noted that the Prince of Wales had his coat of arms mounted on HMS Bronlngton's superstructure. Not to be outdone and convinced that Brinton was "the best of the bunch", Lieut. Hopkins approached banana importers Geest who supplied a glass-fibre banana for the ship.
STREAMING long payingoff pennants, the last two Ton-class mine countermeasures vessels to be based at Rosyth pass under the Forth Rail Bridge for the final time.
HM ships Sheraton (in the lead) and Brinton were commissioned in the mid-1950s and their later careers were spent in the fishery protection role. Although one true Ton-class vessel remains in service HMS Nurton, the First Sea Lord and the Navy Board chose the event to record "sincere appreciation for the magnificent contribution that the 118 Ton-class vessels have made to the Royal Navy over the last 40 years." In a personal signal to all RN units, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Benjamin Bathurst, said that the Tons as minesweepers, minehunters and patrol vessels had served with distinction in many parts of the world, most notably in Malaysia, Borneo, Suez Canal and the Red Sea.
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The long goodbye
"They have been the backbone of our MCM force for many years, providing exceptional service and earning a formidable reputation worldwide, "I wish to extend our particular thanks to those currently, serving in Tons for their invaluable contribution to fishery protection duties. "For all those who have served or been associated with the Ton class Among those who gave Sheraton and Brinton a rousing send-off were Flag Officer Scotland and Northern - Ireland. Vice-Admiral Christopher Morgan; Commodore Minor War Vessels, Commodore Ri-
chard Moore; and Captain Fishery Protection, Capt. Christopher Morrison. In September both ships made farewell visits to London. Berthed in the Lower Pool, the ships welcomed on board many, of their former commanding officers from the past four decades.
Their decommissioning at Portsmouth on October 5 was marked by a ceremony and service at which guest of honour was Rear-Admiral Peter Abbott. former Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff and now Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (designate).
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HMS SHERATON was one of the few ships left in service to carry the Bathe Honours "Borneo" and "Malayan Peninsula" - both 1965. Deployed to the Far East during the Indonesian Confrontation, her duties were to patrol the waters around Singapore and Sarawek. In May 1955 Indonesian shore batteries attempted to sink her with - but she was luckily gunfire out of range and escaped damage. She remained in the Fat East, at first in Singapore and then Hong Kong, until 1972 when newly converted patrol craft arrived in the Crown Colony.