Building of 10 escort vessels and minelayer under the British 1939 Program ordered

Abdiel or Manxman-class minelayers

American Naval Attaché at London, England reported on 23 March 1939 No. 304 that the Admiralty announced on 22 March that 10 of the 20 escort vessels or small destroyers under the 1939 Program were to be built by

1. Cammell, Laird&Co.Ltd., Birkenhead

2. Parsons Marime Steam Turbine Co. Ltd., Wallsend-on-Tyne, hulls by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne

3. Swan, Hunter&Richardson Ltd., with the machinery by the Wallsend Slipway&Engineering Co. Ltd., both at Wallsend-on-Tyne

4. Yarrow&Co. Ltd., Scotstoun, Glasgow

5. John Brown&Co.Ltd., Clydebank

Each contractor was to built 2 escort vessels

R.&W. Hawthorn, Leslie Co. Ltd., Hebburn-on-Tyne was to built a minelayer. That should be the Welshman (M84), laid down on 8 June 1939, launched on 4 September 1940, completed on 25 August 1941 and torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-67 off Crete, Greece on 1 February 1943. Of the Abdiel class also known as Manxman-class and as mine-laying cruisers.

Source

National Archives USA. Record Group 38: Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Series: Secret Naval Attaches Reports. Estimate of potential military strength (pt.). Summaries. Reports from London, Paris, Brussels, Rome and Berlin. Roll M975-001.