# Algerine Class Ocean Minesweepers.



## sooty (Aug 14, 2007)

I am putting together a File of All the Algerine Minesweepers,I have all the Badges.However I think I have exhausted all avenues of search,looking for photo's of the following ships.All with negative results.If anyone can help,I am looking for the following.
HMS Courier,Fantome,Larne,Magicienne,Myrmidon,Polaris,Postillion,Prompt,Regulus.
I would be grateful for any assistance.


----------



## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

Hi, I have a friend called Stan Cheatham, from Fleetwood, who, not only is a member of the Algerine society and served on the class during WW2, has also written many memoirs about the class.
He is not on the computor but if you p.m me with your name and address( snail mail) I will pass on your request.
He is, honestly, the most nice and helpfull human being I have ever had the honour of calling a friend, and I am sure that if he can help you, he will.
Neil.


----------



## Ian6 (Feb 1, 2006)

Hi
No help in your quest, I'm afraid, Sooty but an aside on the Algerine class. They were partly responsible for me going to sea. I was part of an RN Section of the CCF at school. Our Physics Master had been a Lt RNVR during the war serving mostly in HMS Pickle. At first we thought it a quaint name for a ship but learnt that an earlier HMS Pickle had brought the news of Nelson's death home from Trafalgar.
He could readily be diverted into delivering anecdotes of wartime minesweeping and our regular visits to Chatham or Pompey fired my desire to go to sea. I even made my only model ship (56 years ago now) of Pickle.

Hope others are more useful to you in supplying the missing info or pix.
Ian


----------



## rob smith (Aug 17, 2010)

*Hms Courier*

Sooty,
If you have not got a picture of HMS Courier, I have. Also one of the crew circa 45/46. My Father in LAw served on her. Jsut email me
Rob


----------



## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

Here is one for you

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3828.html

Also HMS Larne was never completed according to U Boat net.


----------



## Jim McFaul (Jul 20, 2008)

There were three LARNEs contemplated during the Second World War. The first was a L class destroyer that was completed in 1940 as GURKHA to replace the Tribal recently lost off Norway. The second was an Algerine, one of two ordered from Simons of Renfrew that were cancelled to allow the building of larger escorts. The third, also an Algerine, certainly was completed in 1943 as HMS LARNE. She served both in the D-day invasion and in the invasion of Southern Europe. She was one of several minesweepers damaged by mines off Aegina, near Piraeus, in 1945. She eventually made it to Malta where the war being at an end she was going to be scrapped but in 1946 was transferred to the Italian Navy. She eventually became a home for orphans at La Spezia in the sixties. On holiday in Aegina several years ago, by chance I met John Liens who at the time was the last survivor from LARNE but has now passed on. John and his friend Bill Crawford were laying wreathes on the spot where the ships were mined. Bill's ship, another minesweeper (a Mickey Mouse), had been sunk and he was the sole survivor, something he was not aware of until much later. John gave me some photos of the LARNE lying damaged at Poros which I will try and dig out and scan. As a result of our meeting he later visited the town of Larne and had an official reception from the Lord Mayor and the British Legion there as well as donating some wartime mementos to the local museum. Jim McFaul.


----------



## Jim McFaul (Jul 20, 2008)

Have added two photos of LARNE to the Royal Navy gallery. They given to me by the late John Leins, crew member when she was mined off Aegina. Jim McFaul.


----------



## DaveO (Oct 23, 2007)

*Algerines*



sooty said:


> I am putting together a File of All the Algerine Minesweepers,I have all the Badges.However I think I have exhausted all avenues of search,looking for photo's of the following ships.All with negative results.If anyone can help,I am looking for the following.
> HMS Courier,Fantome,Larne,Magicienne,Myrmidon,Polaris,Postillion,Prompt,Regulus.
> I would be grateful for any assistance.


My Dad was seconded from Lloyds to the Admiralty during WW II to oversee the building of Algerines in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay). I have attached some photos which may be of interest.
My dad is 4th from the right, back row in the launching party photo. Now I know where I get me good looks from !!


----------

