- Notes
- References
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}{{Infobox ship image| Ship image= | Ship caption=MV Menestheus returned to civilian service after World War II
}}{{Infobox ship career | Hide header= | Ship country=United Kingdom | Ship flag= | Ship name=HMS Menestheus | Ship ordered= | Ship awarded= | Ship builder= | Ship laid down= | Ship launched=1929[1] | Ship christened= | Ship notes=Pennant number: M93[2] | Ship commissioned=1940[2] | Ship fate=returned to Blue Funnel Line, 1946[2]
}}{{Infobox ship class overview | Name= | Builders= | UK}} | Class before= | Class after= | Subclasses= | Cost= | Built range= | In service range=1940–1943 | In commission range= | Total ships planned= | Total ships completed= | Total ships scrapped=
}}{{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header= | Header caption=as built | Ship class=Auxiliary minelayer | Ship displacement=7494 (GRT)[1] | Ship length= | Ship beam= | Ship draught= | Ship power= | Ship propulsion= | 16|kn|lk=in}}[1] | Ship range= | Ship complement= | Ship armament=*2 × QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun- 2 × QF 2-pounder naval gun
- 12 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
- [2]
- 438 × mines[1]
}} | MV Menestheus was a Blue Funnel Liner launched in 1929. She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy for conversion to the auxiliary minelayer HMS Menestheus. She joined the 1st Minelaying Squadron based at Kyle of Lochalsh (port ZA) laying mines for the World War II Northern Barrage. When minelaying was completed in October 1943, she was retained for conversion to an amenities ship as part of a mobile naval base for British Pacific Fleet warships. She underwent further conversion at Vancouver in 1944 including installation of a movie theater and canteen staffed by mercantile crews of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary service.[3] Conversion included a brewery to make beer for shipboard consumption. The ship had been painted grey for service in the North Atlantic, but was repainted white for service in the western Pacific.[4] Conversion was incomplete when hostilities with Japan ended, and she was returned to Blue Funnel Line in 1946.[1]Notes1. ^1 2 3 4 {{cite web |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-08ML-Agamemnon.htm |website= Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2 |title= HMS AGAMEMNON - mercantile conversion, Auxiliary Minelayer |last=Mason |first=Geoffrey B. |others=edited by Gordon Smith|publisher=naval-history.net |accessdate=20 January 2014 }}
2. ^1 2 3 Lenton & Colledge, pp.306 & 308
3. ^Lenton & Colledge, pp.333 & 355
4. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/3129 |website= Colonial Film |title= ROYAL NAVY AMENITY SHIP MV MENESTHEUS - THE FLOATING BREWERY |publisher= |accessdate=18 March 2014 }}
References- {{cite book|last1=Lenton|first1=H.T.|last2=Colledge|first2=J.J.|title=British and Dominion Warships of World War II|year=1968|publisher=Doubleday and Company|location=Garden City, New York|isbn=}}
- {{cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005|edition=Third Revised|isbn=1-59114-119-2}}
{{WWIIBritishShips}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Menestheus (M93)}} 3 : Minelayers of the Royal Navy|1929 ships|World War II minelayers of the United Kingdom |