High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Welshman (M48) was an Abdiel-class minelayer of the Royal Navy. During World War II she served with the Home Fleet carrying out minelaying operations, before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in mid-1942 for the Malta Convoys. She also saw service during "Operation Torch". The ship was torpedoed and sunk off Tobruk by U-617 with the loss of 157 lives.