HMS Avenger (D14)
Coordinates: 36°15′N 07°45′W / 36.25°N 7.75°W / 36.25; -7.75
HMS Avenger with Sea Hurricanes on deck |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Avenger class escort carrier |
| Name: | HMS Avenger |
| Builder: | Sun Shipbuilding |
| Laid down: | 28 November 1939 |
| Launched: | 27 November 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 2 March 1942 |
| In service: | 1942 |
| Homeport: | HMNB Clyde |
| Fate: | Sunk by U-155 off Gibraltar on 15 November 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Escort carrier |
| Displacement: | 8,200 long tons (8,300 t) (normal) 9,000 long tons (9,100 t) (deep load) |
| Length: | 492.25 ft (150.04 m) |
| Beam: | 66.25 ft (20.19 m) |
| Height: | 23.25 ft (7.09 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 shaft, 4 diesel engines giving 8,500 bhp (6,300 kW) |
| Speed: | 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) |
| Complement: | 555 |
| Armament: | 3 × QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun 15 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon on single and twin mounts |
| Aircraft carried: | 15 a mixture of Fairey Swordfish Hawker Sea Hurricane |
| Aviation facilities: | Hangar 190 ft (58 m) by 47 ft (14 m) Lift 42 feet (13 m) by 34 feet (10 m) 9 arrester wires |
HMS Avenger was a Royal Navy escort aircraft carrier during the Second World War. In 1939 she was laid down as the merchant ship Rio-Hudson at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company yard in Chester, Pennsylvania. Launched on 27 November 1940, she was converted to an escort carrier and transferred under the lend lease agreement to the Royal Navy. She was commissioned on 2 March 1942.
Avenger's capacity allowed for a maximum of 15 aircraft. In September 1942, she took part in what was the largest and most successful Russian convoy to date. Upon her return home, after observing a number of design faults, Avenger's captain drew up recommendations for future escort carrier design. In November 1942 she took part in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, where she suffered engine problems. While leaving North Africa to start the journey home Avenger was sunk by the U-155 as she was nearing Gibraltar, with a heavy loss of life among her crew.
Read more about HMS Avenger (D14): Design and Description, Service History
Famous quotes containing the word avenger:
“I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)