HMS Gretna was a Hunt-class minesweeper built for the Royal Navy during World War I. Completed in 1918, the ship was sold for scrap in 1928.

Design and description The Aberdare sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced at normal load and at full load.Lenton, p. 250 They measured long overall with a beam of and a draught of . The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.Preston, p. 98

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 and gave a maximum speed of . They carried a maximum of of coal which gave them a range of at .Cocker, p. 76

The Aberdare sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) gun forward of the bridge and a QF twelve-pounder (3-inch (76.2 mm)) anti-aircraft gun aft. Some ships were fitted with QF six-pounder () Hotchkiss guns or QF three-pounder () Hotchkiss guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.

Construction and career Gretna, the first ship of her name in the Royal Navy, was built by Joseph R. Eltringham at their shipyard in South Shields. The ship was launched on 11 April 1918.Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 181

Gretna joined the 3rd Fleet Sweeping Flotilla, attached to the Grand Fleet. She remained as part of the 3rd Sweeping Flotilla, based at Granton, Edinburgh at the end of the war on 11 November 1918.Dorling p. 360 Gretna was still listed as part of the 3rd Fleet Sweeping Flotilla in April 1919, but had moved to the 21st Fleet Sweeping Flotilla, based in Norway, by May that year. The minesweeper was paid off on 24 October 1919.

Gretna, part of the Central Reserve based at Chatham, took part in the Royal Fleet Review at Spithead on 26 July 1924.

In February 1928, as part of a reduction of the numbers of obsolete minesweepers held in reserve, with the Central Reserve being merged with the ordinary reserve based at the Nore, Gretna was ordered to be placed on the sale list. Gretna was sold on 3 October 1928 to Alloa Shipbreaking Company to be broken up in Rosyth.

See also Gretna, Scotland

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