HMS Ibis and the Loss of a Black Swan-class Sloop
HMS Ibis was a Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War. Built on the Tees and completed in 1941, she was lost to enemy action in the Mediterranean less than a year after entering service.
Building and Service
Furness Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. at Haverton Hill-on-Tees, County Durham, laid down the ship on 22 September 1939. She was launched on 28 November 1940 and completed on 30 August 1941. The Black Swan class were small warships designed for escort and patrol duties, armed with guns and depth charges for anti-submarine work and coastal defence.
In 1942, HMS Ibis was adopted by the civil community of Stoke Newington in London as part of the Warship Week savings campaign, a fundraising effort that encouraged the public to support the war effort through investment in war bonds.
Loss in the Mediterranean
On 10 November 1942, HMS Ibis was operating in the Western Mediterranean north of Algiers when she was struck by an airborne torpedo launched from an Italian aircraft. The attack sank the ship. This period saw intense naval activity in North African waters as Allied forces conducted operations to secure the region, and Italian and German aircraft posed a significant threat to Allied vessels in the confined waters of the Mediterranean.
Crew and Legacy
Among those who served aboard HMS Ibis was Rikki Fulton, a Scottish comedian who would later become well known for his work in entertainment. The loss of the ship and her crew remains part of the naval record of the Second World War.
Understanding the Black Swan Class
The Black Swan-class sloops were among the most numerous warships built for the Royal Navy during the war. A sloop in naval terms refers to a small, single-masted warship, though by the Second World War the term had come to mean a small escort vessel. These ships typically displaced around 1,000 to 1,200 tons and carried a crew of 80 to 100 officers and men. An airborne torpedo was a weapon dropped from an aircraft and designed to run toward a target ship below the surface. The pennant number U99 was the ship’s official identification code used in naval records and communications.
Further Reading
Details of HMS Ibis and other Royal Navy losses during the Second World War can be found in Wikipedia and in the records held by maritime archives and naval history collections.
