PRETORIA CASTLE
Displacement: 23,450 tons full load
Complement: ?
Length: 592 ft (180.5 m)
Beam: 76 ft (23 m)
Draught: 29 ft (8.8 m)
Aircraft: 21
Guns:
2 dual 4/45
28 - 20mm AA
Armour: none
Machinery: Diesels, 2 shafts, 16,000 bhp, 18 knots |
|
|
Pretoria Castle - escort aircraft carrier History ex-merchant
Pretoria Castle F61 Built by Harland & Wolff. Launched 12
Oct 1938, completed 1939 as a passenger liner. Requisitioned
as armed merchant cruiser 10/1939, commissioned 28 November 1939.
Purchased by RN 16 July 1942 and converted to a carrier at Swan
Hunter. Commissioned 29 July 1943, conversion completed 9 August
1943. Used only as a trials and training carrier. Sold into merchant
service 26 Jan 1946 but not decommissioned and delivered to new
owners until 21 March 1946. Renamed Warwick Castle. Scrapped
in Spain starting 9/1962. Concept/Program: The largest RN escort
carrier. Originally a passenger liner; employed as an armed merchant
cruiser (AMC) early in the war, then taken over for conversion
to an escort carrier. Design/Conversion: Typical escort carrier
conversion, with large hangar. Nominal aircraft capacity was
21, but she did not embark a combat air group. Modifications:
unknown. Operational: Employed exclusively as a training and
trials carrier during WWII. Departure from Service/Disposal:
Discarded immediately post-war. |
|
|
