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 feet (150 m) |
| Beam | 108 feet 6 inches (33.07 m) |
| Draught | 26 feet (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 | list error: <br /> list (help) 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 |
St. Joseph (AVG/CVE/ACV-50) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier, the first United States Navy ship named for St. Joseph Bay, Florida.
The name St. Joseph was assigned to MC hull 261, a converted C3-S-A1, 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 Lend Lease agreement on 22 December 1943; and commissioned the same day as HMS Ruler (D72) in the Royal Navy.
HMS Ruler served in the North Atlantic during 1944 protecting the vital flow of men and war material 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.[1] 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).[1] 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).[2]
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.[1] Aircraft could be housed in the 260 feet (79.2 m) by 62 feet (18.9 m) hangar below the flight deck.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1]
Notes
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
 United States Navy | |||||
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 Royal Navy |
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