HMS Vestal
Ship Number
1147
Vessel Type
Algerine Class Minesweeper
Built
Belfast
Yard
Musgrave Yard
Slip Number
11
Launch Date
June 19, 1943
Launched By
Mrs Bomford
Delivered
September 1, 1943
Owner
Admiralty
Weight
1053 grt
BP Length
212-21 feet
Breadth
35-20 feet
No. of Screws
Twin
Speed (approx)
16.5 knots
Propulsion
Parsons Single Reduction Geared Turbines 2000 SHP
Official No.
Registered
Fate
Sank
HMS Vestal

Pennant No. J215
 
The last naval casualty of WW2, minesweeper HMS Vestal, is believed to have been found at 70m off the coast of Thailand by a German technical diving team from Phuket.
 
Two British minesweepers were lost in Phuket waters in July 1945 - 2 months after the German surrender in Europe. HMS Squirrel was the victim of a mine, HMS Vestal was sunk after a kamikaze attack by a Japanese fighter pilot - the only ship known to have been lost in this way in the Indian Ocean.
 
The two sweepers  who were members of the 7th Minesweeping Flotilla and were the last British warships to be lost in World War Two. HMS Squirrel was mined off Phuket in the Gulf of Thailand on 24 July 1945 and two days later on 26 July 1945 HMS Vestal was sunk by a Kamikaze suicide plane.
 
Both ships were actually sunk by gunfire from British destroyers being unsalvageable. Seven men were lost on Squirrel and twenty aboard Vestal.