Design
These ships had twin screws and had forced-draught coal burning boilers, that is they burned pulverised coal in an artificially augmented airstream. One consequence of this was that they produced a lot of smoke, so much so that they were more usually referred to as Smokey Joes. Another was that if they were fed anything other than the Welsh Steam Coal they were designed for then the fuel consumption was enormous - one ship was bunkered with soft brown Natal coal and burnt 20 tons in a single day.
They had a shallow draught (8 feet, 2.43 metres). Armament was one QF 4 in (100 mm) gun forward and a QF 12 pounder aft, plus two twin 0.303 inch machine guns. They were equipped for sweeping with Oropesa floats only, that is to cut the cables of moored mines.
Read more about this topic: Hunt Class Minesweeper (1916)
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A design for living
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“I begin with a design for a hearse.
For Christ’s sake not black—
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