HMS Ruler

For other ships with the same name, see USS St. Joseph and HMS Ruler.

History
USA
Name	USS St. Joseph
Builder	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	25 March 1943
Launched	21 August 1943
Fate	Transferred to Royal Navy
History
UK
Name	HMS Ruler
Commissioned	22 December 1943
Decommissioned	29 January 1946
Stricken	20 March 1946
Fate	Scrapped 1946
General characteristics
Class and type	Bogue class escort carrier
Displacement	15,390 tons
Length	492 ft (150 m)
Beam	108 ft 6 in (33.07 m)
Draught	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion	Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW)
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement	646 officers and men
Armament	2 × 5 in (127 mm) guns 8 x twin 40 mm Bofors 35 x single 20 mm Oerlikon
Aircraft carried	30
Service record
Part of:	British Pacific Fleet
Operations:	Battle of Okinawa

HMS Ruler was an escort aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy during World War II. Built in the United States as St. Joseph (AVG/CVE/ACV-50) for lend-lease to the UK, it was a Bogue-class carrier.

The name St. Joseph (making it the first United States Navy ship named for St. Joseph Bay, Florida) was assigned to MC hull 261, a converted C3-S-A1 cargo ship, on 23 August 1942. She was laid down on 25 March 1943 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation of Tacoma, Washington; redesignated CVE-50 on 15 July; launched on 21 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. W.W. Smyth; transferred to the United Kingdom under on 22 December 1943; and commissioned the same day as HMS Ruler with pennant number D72.

HMS Ruler served in the North Atlantic during 1944 protecting the vital flow of men and war materiel from the United States to England and to fighting fronts on the European continent. In early 1945, she transferred to the Pacific Theatre and supported the destruction of Truk and the campaign to take Okinawa.

After the war ended, Ruler returned to the United States at Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 January 1946; was decommissioned from RN service on 29 January; and was accepted by the U.S. Navy the same day. In excess of the Navy’s needs, she was slated for disposal and struck from the Navy Register on 20 March 1946. She was sold on 13 May and scrapped within the year.

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. 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). Propulsion was provided a steam turbine, two boilers connected to one shaft giving 9,350 brake horsepower (SHP), which could propel the ship at 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph).

Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft lifts 43 feet (13.1 m) by 34 feet (10.4 m), one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. Aircraft could be housed in the 260 feet (79.2 m) by 62 feet (18.9 m) hangar below the flight deck. Armament comprised: two 4 inch Dual Purpose guns in single mounts, sixteen 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts and twenty 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons in single mounts. 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.

References

• Cocker, Maurice (2008). Aircraft-Carrying Ships of the Royal Navy. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 9780752446332.

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

External links

• history.navy.mil: USS St. Joseph
• navsource.org: USS St. Joseph
• hazegray.org: USS St. Joseph