The Black Swan class and Modified Black Swan class were two classes of sloop of the Royal Navy and Royal Indian Navy. Twelve Black Swans were launched between 1939 and 1943, including four for the Royal Indian Navy; twenty-five Modified Black Swans were launched between 1942 and 1945, including two for the Royal Indian Navy; several other ships were cancelled.

History

Like corvettes, sloops of that period were specialised convoy-defence vessels. Corvettes were based on a mercantile design with triple expansion engines, sloops were conventional naval vessels with turbines. Sloops were larger and faster with a heavy armament of high angle 4-inch guns which had superior anti-aircraft fire control via the Fuze Keeping Clock, while retaining excellent anti-submarine capability. They were designed to have a longer range than a destroyer at the expense of a lower top speed, while remaining capable of outrunning surfaced Type VII and Type IX U-boats.

In World War II, Black Swan-class sloops sank 29 U-boats. The most famous sloop commander was Captain Frederic John Walker. His sloop became one of the most successful submarine hunters, taking part in the sinking of eleven U-boats. After the war, sloops continued in service with the Royal Navy, Egyptian Navy, Indian Navy, Pakistan Navy and the West German Navy. In April 1949, was attacked on the Yangtze River by the Communist People's Liberation Army. Several Black Swan sloops fought in the Korean War.

Black Swan class

Royal Navy

The first two ships were built under the 1937 Programme, being ordered from Yarrow and Company, Scotstoun, on 1 January 1938. The second pair was built under the 1939 Programme, being ordered from Furness Shipbuilding Company on 21 June 1939. A further ten RN ships were ordered under the 1940 War Programme on 13 April 1940; however six of these (the orders placed with White of Cowes, Thornycroft at Woolston, and Swan Hunter on Tyneside for two ships each) were subsequently replaced by orders for an equal number of escort destroyers.

There were incremental improvements as the building developed, and the Woodcock and Wren when completed were practically indistinguishable from the Modified Black Swan class.

List of Black Swan-class sloops of the Royal Navy

Royal Indian Navy

Two ships were ordered under the 1939 Programme, the order being placed with Denny on 8September 1939. The second pair were ordered under the 1940 Programme, this order with Thornycroft being placed on 29August 1940. The first two were used as survey ships after the War. The second pair were transferred to the Pakistan Navy in 1948. The third pair (which were of the Modified Black Swan class – see below)

List of Black Swan-class sloops of the Royal Indian Navy

Modified Black Swan class

Royal Navy

Fourteen sloops for the RN were in the 1940 Supplementary War Programme. The first two were ordered from Denny, Dunbarton, on 9January 1941, ten more were ordered on 27March 1941 (two each from Cammell Laird, Scotts, Thornycroft, Yarrow and John Brown), and a final pair from Fairfield, Govan, on 18July 1941. The contract with John Brown was transferred to Devonport Dockyard on 3March 1942, and then to Denny on 8December 1942.

List of Modified Black Swan-class sloops of the Royal Navy (1940 programme)

Another fourteen ships were authorised in the 1941 Programme, but the last three ships (the names Star, Steady and Trial had been approved) were not ordered under this programme. The first of the eleven actually ordered was contracted with Thornycroft on 3December 1941, with a further pair from Stephens, Linthouse, on 18 December. Eight more were ordered in 1942, two on 11 February, two on 3 March (originally from Portsmouth Dockyard), two on 12 August and two on 5 October. However the order for two sloops ordered at Portsmouth was moved to Chatham Dockyard on 21June 1943, and they were laid down there, but were cancelled on 15October 1945.

List of Modified Black Swan-class sloops of the Royal Navy (1941 programme)

Two more sloops were authorised in the 1942 Programme; the names would have been Waterhen and Wryneck but they were never ordered in that year's Programme. The 1944 Programme re-instated these two vessels, as well as the twelfth sloop authorised under the 1941 Programme, and now named as Partridge. These three ships were ordered on 9October 1944, but they were all cancelled on 15October 1945. These had been intended to be further modified and enlarged, with a beam of . Two further ships planned under the 1944 Programme would have been named Woodpecker (ii) and Wild Swan, but these were never ordered and the intention to build was dropped when the 1945 Programme was compiled.

• , ordered from Thornycroft.

• , ordered from Denny.

• , ordered from Denny.

Royal Indian Navy

Two ships for the Indian Navy were included in the 1941 Programme, the order being placed with Yarrow on 10September 1941.

List of Modified Black Swan-class sloops of the Royal Indian Navy

Losses

1. In World War II:

2. was sunk by Italian torpedo bombers off Algiers on 10 November 1942

3. was seriously damaged by an acoustic homing torpedo fired by U-256 on 20 February 1944 whilst escorting Convoy ON 224. The ship sank a week later on 27 February whilst under tow during an Atlantic storm.

4. was sunk by on 21 August 1944 whilst the ship was escorting aircraft carriers covering the Arctic convoy JW 59.

5. was damaged beyond repair by on 17 February 1945

6. was sunk by on 20 March 1945 just outside Murmansk, USSR.

U-boat kills

• U-213 was sunk east of the Azores by , and on 31 July 1942.

• U-124 was sunk west of Porto by the corvette and on 2 April 1943.

• U-202 was sunk at 00:30hrs on 2 June 1943 south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland, in position , by depth charges and gunfire from on 2 June 1943.

• U-449 was sunk north-west of Cape Ortegal by , , and on 24 June 1943.

• U-462 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by a Handley-Page Halifax and , , , and on 30 July 1943.

• U-504 was sunk north-west of Cape Ortegal by , , and on 30 July 1943.

• U-226 was sunk east of Newfoundland by , and on 6 November 1943.

• U-538 was sunk south-west of Ireland by the frigate and on 21 November 1943.

• U-119 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by on 24 June 1943.

• U-842 was sunk by and on 6 November 1943.

• U-592 was sunk south-west of Ireland by , and on 31 January 1944.

• U-762 was sunk by and on 8 February 1944.

• U-734 was sunk south-west of Ireland by and on 9 February 1944.

• U-238 was sunk south-west of Ireland by , and on 9 February 1944.

• The Japanese submarine Ro-110 was depth charged and sunk east-south-east off Visakhapatnam, India by the Indian sloop and the Australian minesweepers and on 11 - 12 February 1944.

• U-424 was sunk south-west of Ireland by and on 11 February 1944.

• U-264 was sunk by and on 19 February 1944.

• U-653 was sunk by a Fairey Swordfish from the escort carrier , and on 15 March 1944.

• U-961 was sunk east of Iceland by on 29 March 1944.

• U-962 was sunk north-west of Cape Finisterre by and on 8 April 1944.

• U-473 was sunk south-west of Ireland by , and on 6 May 1944.

• U-333 was sunk west of the Scilly Isles by and the frigate on 31 July 1944.

• U-608 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by and a B-24 Liberator on 10 August 1944.

• U-385 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by and a Short Sunderland on 11 August 1944.

• U-198 was sunk near the Seychelles by the frigate and HMIS Godavari on 12 August 1944.

• U-354 was sunk in the Barents Sea by and , the frigate and the destroyer on 24 August 1944.

• U-394 was sunk in the Norwegian Sea by a Fairey Swordfish from the escort carrier , the destroyers and and the sloops and on 2 September 1944.

• U-425 was sunk in the Barents Sea by and the corvette on 17 February 1945.

• U-1276 was sunk south of Waterford by on 20 February 1945.

• U-1208 was sunk by and others on 20 February 1945.

• U-327 was sunk in the English Channel by the frigates and and on 27 February 1945.

• U-683 was sunk by and others on 12 March 1945.

Reassessment

• U-482 was credited during the war to the Starling, along with the sloops , , , and frigate , as having been sunk in the North Channel on 16 January 1945. The Admiralty withdrew this credit in a post-war reassessment in the 1990s.

See also

• List of ship classes of World War II

• Black Swan-class sloop (2012)

References

Bibliography

Further reading