HMS Stubbington (M1204): Earthquake Relief in Sicily, and a Second Name in Dundee

Built at Portsmouth

HMS Stubbington was built by Camper and Nicholson at Portsmouth, laid down on 26 October 1954, launched on 8 August 1956 and commissioned on 30 July 1957, a Ton-class minesweeper armed with a 40mm Bofors gun forward and a pair of 20mm Oerlikon cannons aft, powered by twin Napier Deltic diesels that gave her a useful 3,000 nautical mile range.

Malta, Aden, and Back Again

Stubbington joined the 108th Mine Sweeping Squadron based at Malta on commissioning, moved to Aden between 1961 and 1962, and returned to the Mediterranean to join the 7th Mine Sweeping Squadron, a busy schedule of overseas postings typical of the Ton-class minesweepers of the era.

Relief After the Sicily Earthquake

In January 1968, Stubbington took part in relief efforts following the devastating Belice earthquake in Sicily, which killed hundreds of people and left thousands homeless, a genuinely valuable humanitarian contribution from a small warship better known for her ordinary patrol and minesweeping duties.

A New Name for the Tay Division

After returning to British waters and serving as a navigation tender at Portsmouth, Stubbington was renamed HMS Montrose between 1972 and 1976 while attached to the Royal Naval Reserve's Tay Division based at Dundee, training reservists under a new identity tied to the Scottish town rather than the Hampshire village she had originally been named for.

Fishery Protection and Scrapping

Following a fourteen-month refit at Chatham Dockyard, the ship, restored to her original name, joined the Fishery Protection Squadron from 1977, undergoing a further refit in 1979 before her long career finally drew to a close. She was sold for scrap in 1989, arriving at Bilbao that September to be broken up, ending over three decades of varied service under two different names.