HMS Trouncer (D85)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Trouncer and USS Perdido.

History
UK
Name	HMS Trouncer
Builder	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	1 February 1943
Launched	17 June 1943
Commissioned	31 January 1944
Decommissioned	12 April 1946
Fate	Sold as Merchant ship; scrapped 1973
General characteristics
Class and type	Bogue class escort carrier
Displacement	9,800 tons
Length	495 feet 8 inches (151.08 m)
Beam	69 feet 6 inches (21.18 m)
Draught	26 feet (7.9 m)
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement	890 officers and men
Armament	2 × 5 inch guns 8 × twin 40 mm Bofors 27 × single 20 mm Oerlikon
Aircraft carried	28
Service record
Operations:	Battle of the Atlantic

The USS Perdido (CVE-47) (previously AVG-47, later ACV-47) was laid down as ACV-47 under Maritime Commission contract by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding of Tacoma, Washington, 1 February 1943; launched 16 June 1943; sponsored by Mrs. H. M. Bemis, reclassified as CVE-47 on 15 July 1943; and completed at the Commercial Iron Works, Portland, Oregon.

Assigned to the United Kingdom under lend lease 23 June 1943, Perdido was taken over by the Royal Navy at Portland, 31 January 1944. During the remainder of World War II, she served the Royal Navy as HMS Trouncer (D85) and took part in convoy escort and ASW patrol operations. The escort carrier returned to Norfolk, Virginia, 21 February 1946. Perdido was returned to the U.S. Navy 3 March 1946, and on 25 March, the Secretary of the Navy authorized her for disposal. Her name was struck from the Naval Register 12 April 1946. She was sold to William B. St. John, delivered to her purchaser 6 March 1947 and pressed into merchant service as Greystroke Castle (renamed Gallic in 1954 and Berinnes in 1959). She was sold for scrap in Taiwan in 1973.

Design and description

Twin 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun.

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 a 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) hanger 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.

External links

• Photo gallery at navsource.org