Minelayer Was Converted Into a Brewery During WW II

From the May 5, 2023, The WarZone "This minelayer was converted into a floating brewery during World War II" by Oliver Parken.

In 19544, the British converted the HMS Menestheus into an amenities ship for Allied forces in the Pacific, complete with a brewery.

The Menestheus was originally a Blue Funnel Line shipping company vessel launched in 1929 by the same name.  The British Navy requisitioned it for use as an auxiliary minelayer early in the war.

As conflict in the European Theater waned and ended, the war in the Pacific was going strong and it was determined that some of the now unneeded minelayers could be altered into so-called amenities ships to help with Allied morale in the Pacific.  One of those amenities was to provide freshly brewed beer.

Before this, beer often spoiled that came from Britain or Australia.

At the behest of Winston Churchill himself, the Admiralty ordered the Menestheus and sister ship Agamemnon be converted for such duty in 1944.  Both ships sailed to Vancouver, British Columbia where their conversion began.

--GreGen