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HMS Pretoria Castle (F61)

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For other ships with the same name, see Pretoria Castle.

HMS Pretoria Castle
History
NamePretoria Castle
Port of registryUnited Kingdom London
BuilderHarland & Wolff
Yard number1006[1]
Launched12 October 1938
Completed18 April 1939[1]
Identification
FateRequisitioned for Royal Navy October 1939
United Kingdom
NameHMS Pretoria Castle
Commissioned28 November 1939
DecommissionedAugust 1942
RefitConverted from armed merchant cruiser to escort carrier
IdentificationPennant number F61
Commissioned29 July 1943
Decommissioned26 January 1946
FateSold back to the Union-Castle Line 1946
NameRMMV Warwick Castle
Port of registryUnited Kingdom London
Acquired1946
FateScrapped July 1962
General characteristics
TypeOcean liner
Tonnage17,392 GRT
Displacement23,450 tons
Length594 ft (181.1 m)
Beam76 ft (23.2 m)
Draught29 ft (8.8 m)
Installed power16,000 bhp (12,000 kW); 3,284 NHP
PropulsionDiesel engines, twin screw
Speed18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Aircraft carried21

HMS Pretoria Castle (F61) was a Union-Castle ocean liner that in the Second World War was converted into a Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser, and then converted again into an escort carrier. After the war she was converted back into a passenger liner and renamed Warwick Castle.

History

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Flight training aboard the Pretoria Castle.

Harland and Wolff built Pretoria Castle in Belfast, launching her in 1938 and completing her in April 1939.[2] The Admiralty requisitioned her for the Royal Navy in October 1939, and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser with eight 6-inch (152 mm) and two 3-inch (76 mm) guns, entering service in November 1939. In this role she served mainly in the South Atlantic.

In July 1942 the Admiralty bought her outright for conversion to an escort carrier by Swan Hunter on Tyneside. For her new role her armament included ten Oerlikon 20 mm cannon.[3] She was commissioned in her new role in July 1943. She operated as a trials and training carrier, seeing no active combat service.

In 1945 she twice became part of aviation history, firstly when British test pilot Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown landed a Bell Airacobra Mk. 1 on her flight deck - the first carrier landing made using an aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage, when Brown declared an emergency and was given permission to make a deck landing; a ruse which had previously been agreed with the carrier's captain, Caspar John, during initial trials for rubber deck landings planned for future carriers, and then by hosting the first ever landings and take-offs by a glider, performed by John Sproule in a Slingsby T.20 as part of research into "round-down" turbulence. On 11 August 1946, while moored on the Clyde, a Gloster Meteor was used for deck handling trials which later led to flight trials on other carriers.[4]

After the war the ship was sold back to the Union-Castle Line in 1946 and converted back to a passenger liner, restored to its route between England and South Africa but renamed Warwick Castle. She was sold and scrapped in Barcelona in July 1962.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b McCluskie, Tom (2013). The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff. Stroud: The History Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0752488615.
  2. ^ Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1939. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  3. ^ "HMS Pretoria Castle Gun 10 X BR 20mm 70cal Mark V VC Power Twin". NavHist. Flixco Pty Limited. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  4. ^ Mason, Geoffrey B. "HMS Pretoria Castle (F 61) – Escort Aircraft Carrier". Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2. Naval History. Retrieved 27 February 2016.

References

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  • Osborne, Richard; Spong, Harry & Grover, Tom (2007). Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945. Windsor, UK: World Warship Society. ISBN 978-0-9543310-8-5.

Further reading

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Media related to HMS Pretoria Castle (F61) at Wikimedia Commons

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