HMS Bodenham

HMS "Bodenham" was one of 93 ships of the of inshore minesweepers.
Their names were all chosen from villages ending in "-ham". The minesweeper was named after Bodenham in Herefordshire.
Construction and design.
HMS "Bodenham" (originally planned to be named "Green Chaffinch") was ordered from Brooke Marine of Lowestoft on 29 September 1950 as part of the first series of Ham-class inshore minesweepers. The ships of the first series of the Ham class were long between perpendiculars and overall, with a beam of and draught of . They had hulls of composite wood-and-aluminium construction and displaced standard and deep load. They were propelled by two Paxman diesel engines, with a total of , giving a speed of . 15 tons of oil were carried, giving an endurance of at . Armament consisted of a single Bofors 40 mm gun or Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, although the ships armed with Bofors guns were usually rearmed with Oerlikons. The ships had a complement of two officers and 13 ratings.
"Bodenham" was launched on 21 August 1952, and was completed on 23 September 1953.
Service.
The Ham class were too small to carry modern minesweeping equipment and in particular, lacked the electrical generating capacity to power acoustic and magnetic sweep gear, so saw little active use with the Royal Navy. "Bodenham" served as tender to between 1954 and 1955, then going into operational reserve at Rosneath, which lasted until 1963. In 1967, South Yemen became independent from the United Kingdom, and three Ham-class minesweepers ("Bodenham", and ) were transferred to the newly established nation's navy. "Bodenham" was renamed "Al Saqr" on transfer and "Jihla" in 1975, and was discarded in 1984.