HMS Seagull 1945 Halcyon Class Minesweeper

Date of Arrival	Place	Date of Departure	Remarks
?	Harwich	15.1.45
21.1.45	Harwich	2.2.45	24/1 Ship taken in hand for boiler cleaning, completes 30/1
?	Harwich	4.2.45
10.2.45	Harwich	19.2.45
27.2.45	Source: ADM 199/153 (Extracts) Tuesday 27^th February 1945 1. (a) HMS Harrier sailed at 0430 to lay datum dans. (b) HMS Hazard sailed at 0445 with dan layers Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad and Lord Ashfield. (c) HM Ships SEAGULL, Halcyon and Speedwell sailed at 0515. Sweepers and danlayers to rendezvous with Harrier North West of Area. (2. – 5. Details of sweep) 6. At 1000… a mine detonated in Hazard’s (rear ship) sweeps. The plume was about 30 feet… Inquiries were made of her and she was unable to determine when or where she had picked up this mine… 7. During the second lap a mine detonated in SEAGULL’s sweep and parted it. There was no plume and from this fact and her position it was assumed to be one of our deep mines... (At 1334 the visibility, which had been good, closed down to half a mile and then became thick fog. Sweeping was abandoned as it was 4 hours passage to the anchorage for the danlayers and it was thought prudent to have them inside our patrols before dark.) Wednesday 28^th February Flotilla and danlayers ordered to return to Harwich by the C in C Nore.
28.2.45	Harwich	9.3.45
?	Harwich	26.3.45	20/3 Taken in hand for boiler cleaning, ready for sea 26/3
30.3.45	Harwich	6.4.45
14.4.45	Harwich	23.4.45
27.4.45	Source: ADM 199/153 (Extracts) 7^th May 1945 1^st MSF Report No. 5 From: The Commanding Officer, HMS Gleaner Date: 27^th April 1945 To: The Senior Officer, 1^st MSF, HMS Harrier 0846 27^th April 1945. SEAGULL, Speedwell, Gleaner, Hazard, Halcyon. Harrier (?) was 6 ½ cables astern of Gleaner with SA Mk IV and Halcyon was operating explosive sweep. Standard hand grenade sweep every two minutes. Mine explosion one minute after explosion of hand grenades. Normal explosion about 150 ft high.
1.5.45	From: The Commanding Officer, HMS SEAGULL Date: 1^st May 1945 To: The Senior Officer, 1^st MSF, HMS Harrier 1148, 1^st May 1945. SEAGULL, Halcyon, Hazard Mine detonated. Plume 50 ft.
2.5.45	Harwich	12.5.45	Repairs at Ipswich 3-8/5
26.5.45	Harwich	31.5.45
5.6.45	Harwich	9.6.45
19.6.45	Harwich	24.6.45
When I joined Seagull we were sweeping from Belgium all along the coast right up to the Dutch Island of Texel and as the Germans were leaving we got closer to the coast and instead of returning to Margate and safe anchorage we anchored off Ostend for a couple of nights in quiet mode & no lights with lookouts posted but to no avail we lost a Dan Layer each night after which needless to say we resumed safe anchorage at Margate. Also one day an armada of ships appeared including Monitors Lord Roberts & Erebus. The Buzz was we were going to sweep a passage to the Walcheren Islands...but the next morning the Armada had gone, apparently another Flotilla got the job, lucky for us unlucky for them. Shortly after we got the job to proceed up the river Maas presumably to see if it was clear of mines, luckily for us it was, when we arrived at Rotterdam the port was in a right mess the cranes were destroyed and also the oil tanks were on fire. About 10 yrs ago whilst visiting some friends, we were introduced to their friends and we got talking about the war and Holland it turned out one of the gentlemen had actually worked on Seagull whilst it was at Rotterdam a chance meeting of one in a million. Source: Eric Ilott Sept 2007
4.7.45	Harwich	17.7.45	SEAGULL can be taken in hand for fitting out as survey vessel at Rotterdam forthwith
27.7.45	Harwich	30.7.45
2.8.45	Holland	4.8.45
?	Harwich	8.8.45
9.8.45	Rotterdam	7.11.45	Converting to Survey Vessel
8.11.45	London	21.11.45	Intend to sail SEAGULL at 0930 20^th, ETA Sheerness 1500, remaining overnight Postponed 24 hours due to fog
21.11.45	Sheerness
27.11.45	Chatham	Apr 46	Converting to Survey Vessel