HMS Smiter (D55)

History
USA
Name	USS Vermillion
Builder	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	10 May 1943
Launched	27 September 1943
Fate	Transferred to Royal Navy
History
UK
Name	HMS Smiter
Commissioned	20 January 1944
Decommissioned	6 May 1946
Fate	Sold as merchant ship SS Artillero; wrecked 1967
General characteristics
Class and type	Bogue class escort carrier
Displacement	7,800 tons
Length	495 feet 8 inches (151.08 m)
Beam	69 feet 6 inches (21.18 m)
Draught	26 feet (7.9 m)
Propulsion	Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW)
Speed	17.5 knots (32.4 km/h)
Complement	890 officers and men
Armament	2 × 5 in (127 mm) guns 4 x twin 40 mm Bofors 10 x single 20 mm Oerlikon
Aircraft carried	28

For other ships with the same name, see USS Vermillion and HMS Smiter.

The USS Vermillion (CVE-52) (previously AVG-52 then later ACV-52) was laid down on 10 May 1943 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation as a Bogue-class auxiliary aircraft carrier; redesignated an escort aircraft carrier, CVE-52, on 10 June 1943; assigned to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease on 23 June 1943; launched on 27 September 1943; and accepted by Britain on 20 January 1944.

Service History

Commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Smiter (D55), a Ruler-class escort carrier, she served the British throughout the remainder of World War II. She returned to the United States at Norfolk Naval Base, Virginia on 20 March 1946 and was officially transferred back to the United States Navy on 6 April 1946. She was immediately determined to be surplus to the needs of the Navy and was designated for sale. Her name was struck from the Navy Registry on 6 May 1946.

On 28 January 1947, she was sold to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Norfolk, Va., for conversion to mercantile service. She was subsequently resold to Compania Argentina de Navigacion Dodero, S.A., and entered mercantile service in 1948 at Buenos Aires as the SS Artillero (renamed President Garcia in 1965). She was wrecked off Guernsey in July 1967, deemed a total loss and was scrapped at Hamburg in November of the same year.

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

• history.navy.mil: USS Vermillion
• navsource.org: USS Vermillion (CVE-52) / HMS Smiter
• hazegray.org: USS Vermillion