HMS Weston
HMS Weston was a Shoreham-class sloop of the British Royal Navy. Weston was built at Devonport Dockyard in 1931–1933. Weston served on the Africa Station and in the Red Sea in the 1930s. In the Second World War, she was used for convoy escort duties, operating in British waters and in the North Atlantic, sinking the German submarine in 1940, and later in West African waters. The ship was laid up in reserve after the end of the war in Europe and was scrapped in 1947. Construction and design The British Admiralty ordered four sloops as part of the 1930 construction programme, with three ordered from Devonport and one from Chatham dockyard. Classified as repeat Shoreham or Falmouth-class ships, they, like the four Shoreham-class sloops ordered under the 1929 construction programme, were a lengthened and improved version of the of the 1928 programme, which were themselves a modification of the . They were intended for a dual role of patrol service in overseas stations in peacetime and minesweeping during war. Weston was long overall, with a beam of and a draught of at full load. Displacement was standard and deep load. Two Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers fed two geared steam turbines which drove two propeller shafts. The machinery was rated at , giving a speed of . The ship's main gun armament consisted of two 4-inch (102 mm) QF Mk V guns mounted fore-and-aft on the ship's centreline, with the forward gun on a High-Angle (HA) anti-aircraft mounting and the aft gun on a Low-Angle (LA) mounting, suitable only for use against surface targets. Four 3-pounder saluting guns completed the ship's gun armament. The initial anti-submarine armament consisted of four depth charges. The ship had a crew of 100 officers and other ranks. Weston was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 7 September 1931. She was launched on 23 July 1932 and completed on 23 February 1933, with the pennant number L72. Modifications The repeat Shorehams were modified in 1937 to 1939 to improve their anti-aircraft capability, with Weston having a major refit in 1939, with the aft 4-inch gun being replaced by a second HA gun, and a quadruple Vickers .50 machine gun mount added for close-in anti-aircraft duties. In September 1939, a second quadruple machine gun mount was added. The ship's armament continued to be modified through the war, with the 3-pounder guns and the multiple machine guns removed, and first two, and later another two single Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon added. The ship's anti-submarine armament was also gradually increased during the war, with the number of depth charges carried increasing from 15 to as many as 60–90. Other wartime changes included the fitting of radar and High-frequency direction finding gear. Service Weston, which was nicknamed "Aggie on Horseback" in service (based on the ship's namesake, Weston-Super-Mare and the Victorian philanthropist Agnes Weston, founder of the Royal Sailors' Rests in Plymouth and Portsmouth), came under command of the Commander-in-Chief, Africa on commissioning, where she served until August 1935,