HMS Upton (M1187): Thirty-Three Years of Minesweeping, From Suez to the Falklands

Built by Thornycroft

HMS Upton was built by J I Thornycroft and Co in Southampton, laid down on 1 May 1955 and completed after fifteen months of construction on 25 July 1956, a Ton-class minesweeper commissioned that August for the 105th Minesweeping Squadron based at Harwich.

An Inauspicious Start at Suez

Upton's early service saw her escorting minesweepers to Malta and taking part in Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis in late 1956, though the deployment got off to an embarrassing start when both her main engines failed and she had to be towed from Port Said to Malta, a less than glorious opening chapter for a ship that would go on to give decades of reliable service.

A Long, Well-Travelled Career

Over more than three decades of active service, Upton served with minesweeping squadrons based at Harwich, Vernon, Port Edgar, Bristol, Dundee and Rosyth in turn, taking part in NATO exercises, fishery protection patrols and humanitarian assistance work, including Operation New Broom based at Den Helder in 1968, part of the steady, unglamorous but essential work that defined the Ton class's long service life.

A Falklands Connection

Though Upton herself did not sail south, members of her crew found themselves manning HMS Cordella during the 1982 Falklands campaign, a reminder of how closely interlinked the Royal Navy's smaller ships and their crews could be even when the vessels themselves stayed in home waters.

Scrapped in Belgium

HMS Upton was finally paid off on 21 September 1990 after thirty-three years of service, and sold to Brugse Scheepssloperij for breaking up on 21 October 1991, a long and quietly distinguished career for a minesweeper whose service had begun with an engine failure under tow to Suez.