Two Admiralty Three-drum water tube boilers fed steam to a Vertical Triple Expansion Engine rated at 2,750 indicated horsepower (2,050 kW) which drove a single propeller shaft.

In 2000 the US President Bill Clinton acknowledged Horsforth's contribution to the war effort in a letter sent to MP Paul Truswell.

On 30 March 1942, Aubrietia picked up some of the survivors from the British merchant ship Muncaster Castle,[14] which was torpedoed and sunk south-south-west of Monrovia, Liberia.

[citation needed] In November 1942, she was deployed as an escort for assault convoys in the Mediterranean as support of planned allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch).

[10] In June 1944, Aubrietia joined the TG 80.6 Antisubmarine and Convoy Control Group[15] during planned landings in South France and came under US Navy command.

In November 1944, she returned to Royal Navy control and continued as an escort for Atlantic convoys between Freetown, the Mediterranean and Liverpool, until April 1945.

[citation needed] Following VE day, Aubrietia was placed on the Disposal List and was sold in 1948 to Kosmos, a Norwegian company, for use as a mercantile buoy tender.