HMS Wave (M385): Refloated With a Barrage Balloon Stuffed in Her Hull

Built in Under Nine Months

HMS Wave was laid down by Lobnitz and Co. of Renfrew on 17 March 1944, launched on 18 August that year and completed on 14 November, a remarkably brisk build time of just eight months and twenty-eight days for an Algerine-class minesweeper needed urgently as the war entered its final year.

Minesweeping Off Norway

Wave joined the 10th Minesweeping Flotilla and took part in operations off the coast of Norway in January 1945, before deploying to the Far East that October following the end of the war, returning to Britain in 1946 to join the Fishery Protection Squadron, a role that would keep her busy for years to come.

Driven Ashore at St Ives

During a severe storm on 30 September 1952, while sheltering in St Ives Bay in Cornwall, Wave's anchor chain broke and she was driven ashore in the town itself, her hull badly holed on the rocks near Westcott's Quay. Sixty-two of her crew were evacuated by breeches buoy while her officers remained aboard, a tense and dramatic scene played out in full view of the town.

An Ingenious Refloating

In a notably inventive piece of naval improvisation, the hole in Wave's hull was reportedly plugged at low tide by stuffing a barrage balloon into it, before two boom defence vessels winched the minesweeper off the rocks and towed her to Devonport Dockyard for proper repairs, a solution that speaks volumes about the resourcefulness expected of naval salvage crews in the era.

Scrapped at Gateshead

HMS Wave was eventually scrapped by King at Gateshead from 4 April 1962, bringing to a close the career of a minesweeper whose most memorable moment came not from clearing mines but from a very British piece of seaside drama at St Ives.