HMAS Latrobe (MSE-1934+)

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Built to replace all of the old WW1 ecorts and minesweepers. The Latrobe classes primary role was as a minesweeper but they could also be used as escorts with an ASW armament and as local minelayers tending local minefields. In time of war the local minelayer role was given over to converted civilian craft.



The ships were a very basic design and were designed with ease of building in mind. The ships could be built at yards of a commercial nature. The steam turbine design was of a commercial design as well and didn't utilise the high pressure equipment made for naval vessels. The machinery in the war built versions could be diesel or triple-expansion as well as the low power turbines. Classed as minesweepers the equivalent ships in the Royal Navy were the Halcyon class.



The ships fell into two groups with the pre-war group being built at leisure to stricter tolerances were of better construction. Twenty were built in Minesweeper configuration while the other four were completed as ASW variants. The second group of War Emergency were built "fast' not 'fast-idious'. The pre-war group of 24 had two single 4" AA mountings. The 40 War built ships had anything from a single 3" to 4.7" depending on what was available. The Hispano 20mm cannons were replaced with Oerlikons when these became available. The M/S equipment was made with ease of conversion to escorts with depth charge racks and throwers replacing the sweeps and ancilliary gear. Twenty of the war built vessels were completed as escorts, the other twenty as minesweepers.

The lack of escorts at times found these ships shepherding convoys from Perth to Durban, then to the UK and often accross to the United States. Some even made round the world cruises with ships in the US escorting tankers down to the Carribean and onto Hawaii, and then escorting troop ships from Hawaii down to Brisbane for the build up for the Philipine landings. In service the ships proved durable and proved themselves capable hunters. The class sharing in submarine sinkings and shooting down aircraft. Two even had the dubious honour of being blown apart by a single shell from the Musashi during the Philipine landings while they were part of the escort force.

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