Ley class minehunter

The Ley class was a class of inshore minehunter built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1950s. They had pennant numbers in the series M2001. Eleven ships were built in the early 1950s, most of which were subsequently disarmed and used as training vessels, RNXS tenders, URNU vessels etc.

Unlike traditional minesweepers, they were not equipped for sweeping moored or magnetic mines. Their work was to locate individual mines and neutralise them. This was a then new role, and the class was configured for working in the shallow water of rivers, estuaries and shipping channels.

They were of composite construction, that is, wood and non-ferrous metals, to give a low magnetic signature, important in a vessel that may be dealing with magnetically detonated mines. They displaced 164 tons fully laden, were armed with a Bofors 40 mm gun and were powered by a pair of Paxman diesel engines.

The class shared the same basic hull as their inshore minesweeper counterpart the Ham-class and the Echo-class inshore survey craft.