Minesweepers: Frauenlob Class

[Brian James]

Estonian Navy Museum Ship,Frauenlob-Class Minesweeper EML Kalev,She was built in West-Germany,at Krogerwerft Shipyards in Rendsburg. The vessel was launched on August 25th 1966 and entered service on June 16th 1967. She was one of ten ships of class 394 with the home port of Neustadt in Holstein. The German Navy decommissioned five of these ships in 1995; Minerva (Kalev) and her sister Diana (Olev) were given to the Estonian Navy to operate. At the handing over ceremony the vessel received the Estonian name Kalev. The third sister Undine was handed over to the Estonian Navy in 2001 as Vaindlo. In 2004 the Estonian Navy decommissioned the ships and Kalev was handed to the Estonian Maritime Museum in Tallinn.