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        HMS Gleaner

        HMS Gleaner

        HMS Gleaner is the Royal Navy’s smallest commissioned vessel – but small does not mean insignificant. The survey motor launch is an advanced survey vessel, using multi beam and sidescan sonar to collect data on the nature of the sea bed and the depth of water.

        HMS Gleaner

        Gleaner – which carries the prefix Her Majesty’s Survey Motor Launch or HMSML – was built at Emsworth in Hampshire and launched on 18 October 1983.

        She was designed to carry out inshore survey work along the South Coast of England, but has since carried out surveys around the coast of the UK, as well as making visits to overseas ports.

        Gleaner is also believed to be the only Royal Navy ship to have paid a visit to Switzerland, having travelled up the Rhine for a visit to Basle in 1988.

        COMMANDING OFFICER

        Malcolm McCallum

        Malcolm Mccallum
        RANK:
        Lieutenant
        JOINED:
        2001
        SPECIALISATION:
        Warfare
        PREVIOUS UNITS:
        HMS St Albans, Cattistock, Enterprise, Echo
        Military experience

        Educated in North London and then at the University of Leeds where he read Economics, Malcolm McCallum initially pursued a career in accountancy in the City of London. Seeking a more varied occupation Malcolm joined the Royal Navy as a Warfare Officer in 2001.

        Completing initial officer training at Britannia Royal Navy College in 2002 he conducted Fleet Training in the Type 23 Frigate HMS St Albans and then honed his navigational skills for six months in HMS Cattistock, a Hunt Class Minesweeper, conducting inshore Fishery Protection duties.

        Obtaining his Navigational Watch Certificate during his Junior Warfare Course at HMS Collingwood in 2003, his first complement job was as the Gunnery Officer to the Northern Ireland Patrol Vessel HMS Cottesmore where his responsibilities included the Force Protection of the vessel and the conduct of Counter Terrorist Boarding Operations off the coast of Northern Ireland.

        Selected to sub-specialise to the HM branch in 2005, he attended the Basic Hydrography course at HMS Drake before being appointed to HMS Enterprise as the Oceanographic Officer. This appointment consisted of operations in home waters as well as service in the Gulf and of note an extensive Oceanographic Survey in the Indian Ocean before returning to the UK for regeneration.

        Transferring to the First Lieutenant position within Enterprise he then deployed to West Africa as part of Operation Vela visiting The Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Cape Verde Islands and Nigeria.

        Training as a military Meteorologist and Oceanographer at HMS Drake in 2007 he was then appointed to the Fleet Mobile HM Teams. This appointment saw him conducting numerous Towed Array patrols on Type 23 frigates as well as providing environmental support to the UK Task Group as well as conducting short notice survey tasking in the Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus and environmental tactical development of the Sonar 2087.

        Joining HMS Echo in the Far East in 2009 upon completion of the Fleet Navigating Officer's course, he navigated Echo back to the UK, during operational sea training and then redeployed East of Suez to conduct Military Data gathering in the Indian Ocean.

        Leaving Echo in the Gulf in the summer of 2011 to return to the UK to attend the HM Advanced Survey course where he gained a Distinction in a Post Graduate Diploma in Hydrography from the University of Plymouth.

        Upon completion of the course, Lieutenant McCallum took Command of HMS Gleaner in the spring of 2012.


        ABOUT THE UNIT

        KEY STATISTICS


        Pennant

        H86

        Displacement

        26tonnes

        Complement

        8personnel

        Length

        14.8Metres

        Beam

        4.7metres

        Draught

        1.6metres

        Top Speed

        14knots

        Launch Date

        18/10/83

        Commissioned date

        5/12/83

        HMS Gleaner

        Smallest Commisioned Vessel In The Royal Navy

        TAKE A LOOK

        UNITS IN TIME


        HMS Gleaner HISTORY

        TRACK THE HISTORY OF SHIPS NAMED HMS Gleaner
        • The First Gleaner

          The first Gleaner was a 154-ton survey ketch hired in 1808 and bought by the Admiralty the following year, ordered to be “fitted out as a float light for Thornton Ridge, to be registered as a survey vessel by the name of Gleaner and established with guns and men.”

        • The Second and Third Gleaners

          She was lost in 1814, and it was 24 years before the second Gleaner appeared in the form of a rebuilt and renamed 371-ton wooden paddle gunvessel, formerly the Gulnare of 1833. She was broken up at Deptford in 184 Five years later the 216-ton wooden screw gunboat Gleaner made her debut; she was sold 14 years later in Montevideo.

        • The Fourth Gleaner

          Gleaner number four was a torpedo gunboat of 735 tons, built at Sheerness in 1890 and sold 15 years later, while number five was the General Stothard, a 160-ton War Department tender renamed Gleaner in 1906 and sold in 1921.

        • The Penultimate Gleaner

          The penultimate Gleaner was a Halcyon-class minesweeper, built in 1937 and originally designated as a survey ship, but on the outbreak of hostilities she was undergoing conversion to a minesweeper in Plymouth and saw extensive service during World War 2, gaining four Battle Honours. The ship was paid off into reserve in September 1946, and was broken up four years later at Preston.

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