HMS Scott (Wright & Logan 10631)

Summary of History

The second HMS SCOTT (J79) was a Survey Ship of the Halcyon class, built by Caledon Shipbuilding Co., Dundee.  Up to the outbreak of war she was employed on survey work in connection with the proposal to lay a Channel Mine Barrage and, during the first few months of the war, she was employed in directing the minelayers in laying the Barrage.

In October/November 1939 SCOTT was converted to an A/S vessel. She kept the big chartroom aft, but lost her mainmasts to topweight compensation. However in April/May1940 she was converted back to a survey vessel. SCOTT then carried out a number of important routine surveys in Home Waters. She spent much of the next two years employed on mining, providing precise positioning for the minelayers and, where necessary, carrying out surveys of the intended minefields before they were laid to determine the depth of water, and hence the length of mooring needed, as well as measuring the tidal streams and currents which the minelayers could expect to encounter. She was principally engaged on the northern barrage, between Scotland, Iceland and Greenland. Only the week before the Bismarck's break‑out in May 1941 SCOTT was in the waters the German squadron passed through, surveying for the next tranche of the barrage. As well as making the surveys to provide data before laying, SCOTT also herself accompanied the minelaying sorties for the northern barrage. In December 1941, she was the surveying ship for Operation 'Anklet' - the second raid on the Lofoten Islands. In this operation she surveyed and marked the narrow approach channel and the anchorage for use by the British Forces taking part. During the subsequent withdrawal SCOTT collided with Arethusa, both ships sustaining slight damage (stem broken and twisted to port). SCOTT spent most of 1942 surveying Scottish waters, apart from a few weeks in Iceland. Following a refit SCOTT again returned to Scottsh waters for most of 1943, again with two brief periods in Iceland.

In 1944 SCOTT took part in two very cold invasion exercises in the Firth of Forth: a battalion of infantry was landed on the beaches at Gullane, and the port of Methil was 'taken' from the sea. In June 1944, the ship sailed from Spithead in the van of Invasion Fleet and D-Day found her laying marker buoys in the approaches to the invasion beaches and charting obstructions and natural dangers off the Normandy Coast. SCOTT also assisted with the construction of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches by fixing the positions of the Blockships and Phoenix Piers. Only a few days after this harbour was compete, SCOTT's chart of Arromanches wartime harbour was available to the fleet.

Subsequently, SCOTT was actively engaged in surveys of liberated ports and harbours, many of them extensively damaged, including Morlaix, Boulogne, Brest and Dunkirk. She also surveyed the points where the several PLUTOs (Pipe Lines Under The Ocean) came ashore.  With HMS Franklin she carried out surveys and laid marker buoys in the Scheldt River, thus opening the port of Antwerp to Allied shipping. On 13th October 1944 off Boulogne, five of SCOTT's crew were drowned when they attempted to rescue three soldiers seen adrift in a dory during a gale.

Post-war SCOTT was employed on general hydrographic duties in Home Waters, locating and sweeping many of the war-time wrecks and re-surveying large areas off the coast of Great Britain. The ship finally paid off in late 1964 and was sold on 24th June 1965 to West of Scotland Shipbreaking where she arrived on 3rd July 1965.