HMS Fittleton (M1136)

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Career

Class and type:	Ton class minesweeper
Name:	HMS Fittleton
Builder:	J. Samuel White, Southampton
Launched:	5 February 1954
Renamed:	HMS Curzon between 1960 to 1975
Fate:	Sunk in collision with HMS Mermaid on 20 September 1976 Raised and sold for scrapping
General characteristics
Displacement:	440 tons
Length:	152 ft (46.3 m)
Beam:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Draught:	8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion:	Originally Mirrlees diesel, later Napier Deltic, producing 3,000 shaft horsepower (2,200 kW) on each of two shafts
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h)
Armament:	1x Bofors 40 mm gun 1x Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 1x M2 Browning machine gun

HMS Fittleton (M1136) was a Ton class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was assigned to the Royal Naval Reserve and operated from HMS Sussex, but manned by the London division (HMS President). In 1960 she was renamed HMS Curzon. She was sunk in a collision with HMS Mermaid on 20 September 1976 whilst on manoeuvres in the North Sea. Twelve volunteer Royal Navy Auxiliary servicemen lost their lives making this the worst peacetime accident involving the Royal Naval Reserve.

[edit] Sinking

The ship was a wooden hulled minesweeper that had been converted for Royal Naval Auxiliary training and supply work. About 80 miles north of Texel in the North Sea HMS Curzon (the ex-Fittleton) and HMS Mermaid were involved in an exercise involving the two ships sailing close to each other. Curzon was caught in a bow wave and was drawn close to HMS Mermaid by hydrodynamic forces. A collision ensued and Curzon turned over within a minute.

Some survivors were picked from the sea and German and Dutch vessels joined Royal Navy ships in searching for survivors with divers going into the upturned hull. The following day a marine crane lifted the wreck of Curzon out of the water and the ship was taken to Den Helder in the Netherlands where the ship was made watertight and she was then towed back to Chatham Dockyard. Five bodies were found on the ship but seven were missing presumed drowned.

She was scrapped the following year and HMS Mermaid was sold out of service. A full enquiry into the disaster took place. A memorial window was commissioned for the church at Fittleton in Wiltshire.