HMS Ravager (D70)

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Ravager
Builder: Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down: 11 April 1942
Launched: 16 July 1942
Commissioned: 25 April 1943
Decommissioned: February 1946
Struck: 1946
Fate: Sold into merchant service as Robin Trent. Scrapped 1973.
General characteristics
Class and type:
Displacement: 14,630 tons (full load)
Length: 465 ft (142 m)
Beam: 69 ft (21 m)
Draught: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW)
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement: 646 officers and enlisted
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 20
Service record
Operations: Battle of the Atlantic (1943-44)

HMS Ravager (D70) was a Ruler-class escort carrier built in the United States (as a Bogue-class) and operated by the Royal Navy during World War II.

Ravager was initially constructed in the U.S. by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding in Tacoma in 1942. She was purchased by the U.S. Navy and was converted to an escort carrier at Commercial Iron Works, Portland, Oregon. Upon completion in 1943 she was transferred to the Royal Navy and named HMS Ravager.

The ship initially served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic theatre. Later in the war she was used mainly as a deck-landing training carrier. In February 1946 she was returned to the US Navy and sold for civilian use in July 1947, being renamed the Robin Trent and later the Trent. She was scrapped in 1973.

Design and description

These ships were all larger and had a greater aircraft capacity than all the preceding American built escort carriers. They were also all laid down as escort carriers and not converted merchant ships.[1] All the ships had a complement of 646 men and an overall length of 492 feet 3 inches (150.0 m), a beam of 69 feet 6 inches (21.2 m) and a draught of 25 ft 6 in (7.8 m).[1] Propulsion was provided by one shaft, two boilers and a steam turbine giving 9,350 shaft horsepower (SHP), which could propel the ship at 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph).[2]

Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft lifts 43 by 34 feet (13.1 by 10.4 m), one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires.[1] Aircraft could be housed in the 260 feet (79.2 m) by 62 feet (18.9 m) hangar below the flight deck.[1] Armament comprised: two 4"/50, 5"/38 or 5"/51 Dual Purpose guns in single mounts, sixteen Bofors 40 mm guns anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts and twenty 20 mm anti-aircraft cannons in single mounts.[1] They had a maximum aircraft capacity of twenty-four aircraft which could be a mixture of Grumman Martlet, Vought F4U Corsair or Hawker Sea Hurricane fighter aircraft and Fairey Swordfish or Grumman Avenger anti-submarine aircraft.[1]

F6F Hellcat landing on Ravager

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cocker (2008), p.82.
  2. ↑ Cocker (2008), p.79.

References

  • Cocker, Maurice (2008). Aircraft-Carrying Ships of the Royal Navy. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-4633-2.
  • "World Aircraft Carrier Lists".
  • "Royal Navy Research Archive".
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