Pelican's intended West Indies survey work and initial fishery-protection assignment lead into a broader point about sloop procurement. Survey ships, fishery-protection vessels, yachts, communications ships, harbour-security craft, and anti-piracy ships all gave the type legitimate peacetime work. Those missions allowed the Royal Navy to maintain numerous useful small warships between wars. Because the same hulls could be armed and reassigned as convoy escorts, peacetime presence work also preserved wartime force structure. Institutional requirements and flexible design reinforced one another.
Notable Point · 14:42-15:37
Peacetime duties created a reserve of adaptable wartime escorts
Surveying, fishery protection, communications, harbour security, and anti-piracy work gave the Royal Navy many peacetime reasons to maintain sloops that could become wartime escorts.