HMS Walkerton (M1188): Survived a Shark Strike and Left Malta Last

Built by Thornycroft

HMS Walkerton was laid down by J I Thornycroft in Southampton on 4 July 1955, completed on 10 January 1958 and entered service on 24 February that year as Senior Officer of the 104th Minesweeping Squadron, based at Malta, a Ton-class minesweeper that would go on to give the Royal Navy twenty-six years of active service.

Patrols From Cyprus to Kuwait

Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, Walkerton conducted numerous patrols off Cyprus and further deployments to Aden, Bahrain and Kuwait, part of the Royal Navy's extensive East of Suez commitments during a period of near-constant regional tension.

A Gale, a Shark, and the Six Day War

Walkerton's service produced two memorable incidents: a severe gale north of Crete in 1959 during which she rolled a startling fifty degrees, and a collision with a large shark in the Red Sea that caused underwater damage, a reminder that hazards at sea were not always man-made.

She went on to serve through the 1967 Six Day War before departing Malta in March 1969 as the very last Royal Navy vessel to leave the island, a properly historic footnote to end nearly two centuries of British naval presence there.

Training Duties and the Reserve

After paying off from active service in April 1969, Walkerton moved into training duties at Dartmouth between 1970 and 1979, before joining the Royal Naval Reserve, during which time she experienced minor collisions during refits and carried out salvage operations, the kind of steady, unglamorous work that filled out the later careers of so many Ton-class ships.

Sold for Scrap

HMS Walkerton finally paid off on 11 July 1985 and was sold to Ogdens of Middlesbrough for breaking up on 20 December 1990, closing out a long and eventful career that had carried her from Mediterranean gales to the historic final departure from Malta.