HMS Selkirk was a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Aberdare sub-class built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War and survived the Second World War to be sold for scrap in 1947.
The Aberdare sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced 800LT at normal load. They had a length between perpendiculars of 220feet and measured 231feet long overall. The Aberdares had a beam of 26feet and a draught of 7feet. The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.[1]
The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Yarrow boilers. The engines produced a total of 2200ihp and gave a maximum speed of 16kn. They carried a maximum of 185LT of coal[1] which gave them a range of 1500nmi at .[2]
The Aberdare sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) 4inches gun forward of the bridge and a QF twelve-pounder (76.2 mm) anti-aircraft gun aft.[1] Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.[2]
The ship was named after the Scottish town of Selkirk.
Following a successful Warship Week National Savings campaign in March 1942 she was adopted by the civil community of Thorne, near Doncaster in the West Riding of Yorkshire.[3]