Aubrietia-class sloop


The Aubrietia-class sloops were a class of twelve sloops built under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I as part of the larger. They were also referred to as the "cabbage class", or "herbaceous borders". The Flowers were the first ships designed as minesweepers.
Like all the Flowers, the Aubrietia class were originally designed as single-screw fleet sweeping vessels, with triple hulls at the bows and an above-water magazine located aft, to give extra protection against loss from mine damage when working. However, the utility of the design was found to be as a convoy escort, and as such other classes took over the minesweeping role. The Aubrietias were re-classified as convoy sloops.
Unlike the preceding Flowers of the Acacia, Azalea and Arabis classes, with their unmistakable warship appearance, the Aubrietias were designed to look like small merchantmen, in the hope of deceiving U-boat commanders, a tactic known as the Q-ship. These vessels were built by commercial shipbuilders to Lloyd's Register standards, to make use of vacant capacity, and the individual builders were asked to use their existing designs for merchantmen, based on the standard Flower-type hull.
Two members of the following Anchusa group, and , survived to be moored on the River Thames for use as Drill Ships by the RNVR until 1988, a total of seventy years in RN service. President was sold in 1988 and preserved, and is now one of the last three surviving warships of the Royal Navy built during the First World War,.

Ships

Six ships were ordered in January 1916:
A further six ships were ordered in December 1916: