Laleston

HMS Laleston

HMS Laleston M1158 was a Ton class Minesweper, named after the village in South Wales, there were many ships in Britain of that time named after villages in the doomsday book. She was affectionately known to her ship’s company as 'LOLLIPOP' as in the good ship LOLLYPOP. ( Shirley Temple's - On The Good Ship Lollipop 1934 )

HMS Laleston was built with a wooden hull and laid down on the 12th March 1953 at Harland & Wolff, Belfast. Yard Number 1519. She was Completed on the 10th November 1954 and Commissioned in January 1955 for VERNON Training Squadron (with a BILDESTON Crew) then 11 years later she was converted, and on 7 Mar 1967 Recommissioned as a Diving Trials Ship, she still had an open bridge but her sweep gear had been removed to make way for a divers’ classroom/changing room and a two-compartment compression chamber on the sweep deck. 

Between 1967-71 she carried out Diving Trials with visits in North European Waters, HMS Laleston spent most of her time day-running with diving courses. She would sail in the morning and find a sheltered area with the required depth where she would anchor while diving training took place. She would also anchor at night a couple of times each week to act as a target for attack swimming, or as a diving training platform. In the summer when the weather was more reliable, she operated from Falmouth then in 1971 she was deployed to the Mediterranean.

 Special events

On the 17th November 1959 she took ten Admirals to sea for the day.

On the 30th June 1968 She Escorted the yacht ‘Lively Lady’ (Sir Alec Rose) up Channel

On the 28th June 1977 She Participated in Spithead Review.

In Apr 1978 She Participated in the AMOCO CADIZ oil clean up.

HMS Laleston was stood down in February 1982 and disposed of on the 26th February 1985. Sold to G & T Services, Barking for breaking up.

She spent 25 of her 27 years fully operational.