P-class sloop

The P class, nominally described as "patrol boats", was in effect a class of British coastal sloops. Twenty-four ships to this design were ordered in May 1915 (numbered P.11 to P.34) and another thirty between February and June 1916 (numbered P.35 to P.64) under the Emergency War Programme^[2] for the Royal Navy in the First World War, although ten of the latter group were in December 1916 altered on the stocks before launch for use as decoy Q-ships and were renumbered as PC-class sloops. None were named initially, although in 1925 P.38 was given the name Spey.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Service image of 1:48 scale model P-class sloop HMS P23
Class overview
Name	P class
Operators	Royal Navy
In service	1916–1921
Planned	64
Completed	64 (including 20 as PC-class Q-ships)
Lost	3
General characteristics [1]
Displacement	613 long tons (623 t)
Length	244 ft 6 in (74.52 m) o.a.
Beam	23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Draught	8 ft (2.4 m)
Installed power	3,500 shp (2,600 kW)
Propulsion	2 × steam turbines 2 × cylindrical boilers 2 × screws
Speed	20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Range	Oil fuel
Complement	50–54 men
Armament	(As designed): 1 × 4-inch (102 mm) gun 1 × QF 2-pounder (40mm) A/A 2 × 14-inch torpedo tubes

These vessels were designed to replace destroyers in coastal operations, but had twin screws, a very low freeboard, ram bows of hardened steel, a sharply cutaway funnel and a small turning circle. Clearly seen as the linear descendants of the late 19th century steam torpedo boats and coastal destroyers, many were fitted with the 14-inch torpedo tubes removed from old torpedo boats.

With the survival of a builder's diary by William Bartram, full details of the sea trials of P.23 on 21 June 1916 exist. She worked up to 21.8 knots (40.4 km/h). Bartram's commissioned a model from Sunderland modelmaker C Crawford & Sons and this model, in the collections of Sunderland Museum and Heritage Service, is stored in the model store of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Service at the Discovery Museum.

PC class sloops

Patrol boat HMS P32

Ten of these ships were completed as Q-ships, with their numbers being altered by the addition of a "C" after the "P". These were termed the PC class sloops. A further batch of ten ships were ordered in 1917 (PC.65 to PC.70 in January, and PC.71 to PC.74 in June) as PC class sloops. These were built to resemble small merchant vessels for use as decoy (Q) ships, and were alternatively known as "PQ" boats. Again, none were named, although in 1925 PC.73 was given the name Dart, while PC.55 and PC.69 were named Baluchi and Pathan respectively upon transfer to the Royal Indian Navy in May 1922.

The PC-class sloops were completed with slight enlargement from the standard P-class sloops. They were 247 ft (overall) long and 25½ ft in breadth, although they had similar machinery. Displacement varied from 682 tons in PC.42, PC.43, PC.44, PC.51, PC.55 and PC.56 to 694 tons in PC.60 to PC.63 and in PC.65 to PC.74. They carried one 4-inch and two 12-pounder guns, and no torpedo tubes.

Ships

Ship	Builder	Launched[3][4]	Fate
1915 batch
P.11	J. Samuel White & Company, Cowes	14 October 1915	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.12	White, Cowes	4 December 1915	Sunk in collision in the Channel 4 November 1918[5]
P.13	William Hamilton and Company, Port Glasgow	7 June 1916	Renumbered P.75 on 31 July 1917 and sold for breaking up 31 July 1923
P.14	Charles Connell and Company, Scotstoun	4 July 1916	Sold for breaking up 31 July 1923
P.15	Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast	24 January 1916	Sold on 26 November 1921
P.16	Workman Clark	23 March 1916	Sold on 26 November 1921
P.17	Workman Clark	21 October 1915	Sold on 26 November 1921
P.18	A. & J. Inglis, Glasgow	20 April 1916	Sold 26 November 1921
P.19	Northumberland Shipbuilding Company, Howdon	21 February 1916	Sold 24 July 1923
P.20	Northumberland Shipbuilding	3 April 1916	Sold for breaking up in May 1923
P.21	Russell & Company, Port Glasgow	31 March 1916	Sold 26 November 1921
P.22	Caird & Company, Greenock	22 February 1916	Sold for breaking up 12 December 1923
P.23	Bartram & Sons,[2] Sunderland	5 March 1916	Sold 24 July 1923
P.24	Harland & Wolff, Govan	24 November 1915	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.25	Harland & Wolff, Govan	15 January 1916	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.26	Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Company, Newcastle upon Tyne	22 December 1915	Mined off Le Havre 10 April 1917[6]
P.27	Joseph T. Eltringham & Company, South Shields	21 December 1915	Sold 24 July 1923
P.28	Robert Thompson & Sons, Sunderland	6 March 1916	Sold 24 July 1923
P.29	William Gray & Company, West Hartlepool	6 December 1915	Sold 24 July 1923
P.30	W. Gray & Co	5 February 1916	Sold 24 July 1923
P.31	J. Readhead & Sons, South Shields	5 February 1916	Sold for breaking up 16 December 1926
P.32	W. Harkess & Sons, Middlesbrough	20 January 1916	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.33	Napier & Miller, Old Kilpatrick (Glasgow)	8 June 1916	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.34	Barclay Curle & Company, Whiteinch	22 March 1916	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
1916 batch
P.35	Caird & Company	29 January 1917	Sold for breaking up 15 January 1923
P.36	Eltringham	25 October 1916	Sold for breaking up in May 1923
P.37	W. Gray & Co	28 October 1916	Sold 18 February 1924
P.38	William Hamilton	10 February 1917	Sold for breaking up 7 December 1937
P.39	Inglis	1 March 1917	Sold for breaking up 6 September 1922
P.40	White, Cowes	12 July 1916	Sold for breaking up 1937
P.41	Bartram	23 March 1917	Sold for breaking up 6 September 1922
P.42	Caird & Company	7 June 1917	Renumbered PC.42 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.43	Caird & Company	14 August 1917	Renumbered PC.43 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up 20 January 1923
P.44	Eltringham	25 April 1917	Renumbered PC.44 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up 9 April 1923
P.45	W. Gray & Co	24 January 1917	Sold for breaking up 15 January 1923
P.46	Harkess	7 February 1917	Sold for breaking up 28 October 1925
P.47	Readhead	9 July 1917	Sold for breaking up 28 October 1923
P.48	Readhead	5 September 1917	Sold for breaking up May 1923
P.49	Thompson	19 April 1917	Sold for breaking up 15 January 1923
P.50	Tyne Iron	25 November 1916	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.51	Tyne Iron	25 November 1916	Renumbered PC.51 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up 18 January 1923,
P.52	White, Cowes	28 September 1916	Sold for breaking up May 1923
P.53	Barclay Curle	8 February 1917	Sold 18 February 1924
P.54	Barclay Curle	25 April 1917	Sold 18 February 1924
P.55	Barclay Curle	5 May 1917	Renumbered PC.55 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Transferred to Royal Indian Navy February 1922, renamed Baluchi in May 1922; sold 1935
P.56	Barclay Curle	2 June 1917	Renumbered PC.56 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. On 25 December 1917 helped sink SM U-87. Sold for breaking up 31 July 1923
P.57	Hamilton	6 August 1917	Sold to Egypt 21 May 1920 and renamed El Raqib
P.58	Hamilton	9 May 1918	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
P.59	White, Cowes	2 November 1917	Sold for breaking up 16 June 1938
P.60	Workman Clark	4 June 1917	Renumbered PC.60 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold 18 February 1924
P.61	Workman Clark	19 June 1917	Renumbered PC.61 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up 9 April 1923
P.62	Harland & Wolff, Govan	7 June 1917	Renumbered PC.62 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921.
P.63	Connell	2 October 1917	Renumbered PC.63 before being launched and completed as PC-class sloop. Sold for breaking up May 1923
P.64	Inglis	30 August 1917	Sold for breaking up 9 April 1923
1917 batch
PC.65	Eltringham	5 September 1917	Sold for breaking up 8 January 1923
PC.66	Harkess	12 February 1918	Sold for breaking up 31 July 1923
PC.67	White, Cowes	7 May 1917	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
PC.68	White, Cowes	29 June 1917	Sold for breaking up 1 December 1921
PC.69	Workman Clark, Belfast	11 March 1918	Transferred to Royal Indian Navy 5 August 1921, and renamed Pathan 30 May 1922; sunk by Italian submarine Galvani on 23 June 1940.[7][8][9][10]
PC.70	Workman Clark, Belfast	12 April 1918	Sold for breaking up 3 September 1926
PC.71	White, Cowes	18 March 1918	Sold for breaking up 28 October 1925
PC.72	White, Cowes	8 June 1918	Sold for breaking up 28 October 1925
PC.73	White, Cowes	1 August 1918	Renamed Dart in April 1925. Sold for breaking up 16 June 1938
PC.74	White, Cowes	4 October 1918	Operated as Q-ship Chatsgrove during WW2[11] (from late 1939 to July 1945). Sold for breaking up 19 July 1948

References

1. Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 96.
2. "P boats of the First World War – William Bartram and P23", Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Blog, 18 April 2013
3. Dittmar and Colledge 1972, p. 98
4. Dittman and Colledge 1972, p. 99.
5. "P class patrol boat (sloop br.)". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
6. "HMS P-26 (fore part) [+1917]". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
7. Rohwer & Hummelchen, p.23
8. Collins, D.J.E. (1964). The Royal Indian Navy, 1939–1945, Official History of the Indian Armed Forces In the Second World War. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
9. "House of commons debate – Indian, Burman, and Colonial War Effort". House of Commons of the United Kingdom. 20 November 1940.
10. "Fighting the U-boats = Indian Naval forces". Uboat.net.
11. "RFA Chatsgrove". www.historicalrfa.org.

• Dittmar, F. J. and J. J. Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan, 1972. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
• Gardiner, Robert and Randal Gray. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1985. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.

Further reading

• British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H T Lenton, 1998, Greenhill Books, ISBN 978-1-85367-277-4
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I, Janes Publishing, 1919
• The Grand Fleet, Warship Design and Development 1906–1922, D. K. Brown, Chatham Publishing, 1999, ISBN 978-1-86176-099-9
• P boats of the First World War – William Bartram and P23 at Ian Whitehead's blog.
• Catalogue entry for TWCMS:B9633 P23 materials is at Collections – Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums then input TWCMS : B9663 .

External links

• Media related to P-class sloop at Wikimedia Commons