ROYAL NAVY SOUTH ATLANTIC COMMAND - ROYAL NAVY K

Completed: 1939 

Displacement: 455 tons 

Length: 138 ft 

Beam: 23 ft 

Draught: 13 ft 

Propulsion: 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine, 1 screw 

Armament: 2 × 12 pounder guns AA 

Complement: 30 

During World War II, the requisitioned anti-submarine trawler HMS Kelt (FY112) operated under the West Africa Command, using Freetown, Sierra Leone, as a primary base for regional security and convoy escort duties between 1940 and 1942.

Key Roles and Strategic Operations at Freetown

Submarine Patrolling and Contacts: The vessel regularly participated in defensive sweeps outside the main port. On 5 March 1940, while returning to Freetown from the designated "outer patrol" sector, HMS Kelt made an active anti-submarine sonar contact. It coordinated a joint depth charge assault with the local "inner patrol" trawler HMS Spaniard and summoned surface and air reinforcements to secure the harbor entrance.

Convoy Escort Duties: Freetown served as a massive staging assembly hub for shipping routes. On 1 March 1941, HMS Kelt deployed alongside the armed merchant cruiser HMS Cilicia and the corvette HMS Asphodel to provide frontline escort screening for Convoy SL 67, guarding merchant vessels as they departed Freetown for Liverpool.

HMS Kelt in the south Atlantic station rescued 24 surviors from the Norwegian Merchant Sydhav sunk 06/03/42 by U 505 in pos.  04º 47’N  14º 57’W. They were taken to Freetown. Sydhav was ladden with 11,400 tons of oil. After war HMS Kelt was sold to Belgium. HMS Kelt FY 112, was part of a group based Freetown providing patrol and escort duties.