The Bangor class was designed as a small minesweeper that could be easily built in large numbers by civilian shipyards; as steam turbines were difficult to manufacture, the ships were designed to accept a wide variety of engines. Peterhead displaced 673LT at standard load and 860LT at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 189feet, a beam of 28feet and a draught of 10feet.[1] The ship's complement consisted of 60 officers and ratings.[2]
She was powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines (VTE), each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The engines produced a total of 2400shp and gave a maximum speed of 16kn. The ship carried a maximum of 160LT of fuel oil that gave her a range of 2800nmi at .[3]
The VTE-powered Bangors were armed with a 12-pounder 3inches anti-aircraft gun and a single QF 2-pounder (4 cm) AA gun or a quadruple mount for the Vickers .50 machine gun. In some ships the 2-pounder was replaced a single or twin 20 mm Oerlikon AA gun, while most ships were fitted with four additional single Oerlikon mounts over the course of the war.[3] For escort work, their minesweeping gear could be exchanged for around 40 depth charges.[2]
She was built by Blyth Shipbuilding Company, of Blyth, Northumberland and launched on 31 October 1940. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy named after the Scottish town of Peterhead. Under the command of Lt Cdr David Croom-Johnson RNVR (later Lord Justice Croom-Johnson), she took part in Operation Neptune, the assault phase of the invasion of Normandy and was mined off Utah Beach on 8 June 1944. Croom-Johnson was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for Peterhead’s work in Operation Neptune. Peterhead was declared a total loss, and was sold for scrapping on 1 January 1948. She was broken up at Hayes, of Pembroke in May 1948.
. Henry Trevor Lenton. British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, Maryland. 1998. 1-55750-048-7.