Qualla: HMS Sword Dance (1918) https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: HMS Sword Dance (1918) https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918 HMS Sword Dance (1918): Introduction https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918/ HMS Sword Dance was a converted river tug, originally built for Mesopotamia, that ended her life on a Russian river thousands of miles from where she was meant to operate. On 24 June 1919, she was sweeping for mines on the Northern Dvina south of Archangel when she detonated one of her own targets. She sank in shallow water, her bridge and stem still above the surface. One crewman died. The war she was fighting was not the war she had been built for, was no longer the war anyone in Britain thought they were fighting, and would soon end without resolution.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/q/h/hms-sword-dance-1918-wp/gfqh-hms-sword-dance-1918-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full HMS Sword Dance (1918): From Mesopotamia to Murmansk https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918/ In July 1917 the Royal Navy needed shallow-draught minesweepers - vessels that could work harbour mouths, river estuaries, anywhere the deep-water sweepers couldn't reach. Someone noticed that the War Department was already building exactly the right kind of boat: tunnel tugs for...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/q/h/hms-sword-dance-1918-wp/gfqh-hms-sword-dance-1918-from-mesopotamia-to-murmansk.mp3 0:06 2 full HMS Sword Dance (1918): The Intervention https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918/ The Russian Civil War had been running since 1917, and the Allied powers, still officially at war with Imperial Russia's former enemies until 1918, had landed troops at Archangel and Murmansk to support the White Russians against the Bolsheviks. The intervention was unpopular at ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/q/h/hms-sword-dance-1918-wp/gfqh-hms-sword-dance-1918-the-intervention.mp3 0:06 3 full HMS Sword Dance (1918): The Dvina https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918/ Sword Dance arrived at Yukanski - now Ostrovnoy in Murmansk Oblast - on 7 June 1919. She joined three sister sweepers and the monitor HMS Humber on the river. A considerable force had been assembled: six monitors, six river gunboats, the four sweepers. The Northern Dvina runs nor...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/q/h/hms-sword-dance-1918-wp/gfqh-hms-sword-dance-1918-the-dvina.mp3 0:06 4 full HMS Sword Dance (1918): The Mine https://qualla.com/hms-sword-dance-1918/ On 24 June, Sword Dance was stationed on the Dvina near Troitsa when crew noticed that some of the markers indicating the swept channel had been moved. The minesweeper put out to relay them. While doing so, she struck a mine, perhaps moved deliberately, perhaps drifted by the cur...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/q/h/hms-sword-dance-1918-wp/gfqh-hms-sword-dance-1918-the-mine.mp3 0:06 5 full