Nairana Class Escort Carrier - Design and Description

Design and Description

The Nairana-class escort carriers were a class of three escort carriers built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Escort carriers were designed to protect convoys of merchant ships from U-boat and aircraft attack. Following the successful conversion and operation of HMS Activity, the Admiralty decided to take over three more merchant ships while they were still under construction and convert them into escort carriers. The three ships chosen were being built at three different shipyards around the United Kingdom, Harland and Wolff in Northern Ireland, Swan Hunter in England and John Brown & Company in Scotland. The prototype was built by John Brown who supplied the other two companies with copies of the plans. The three ships were supposed to be identical but in reality they were all slightly different.

Nairana built by John Brown was launched on 20 May 1943 and completed on 12 December 1943. She had a complement of 728 men and displaced 14,050 long tons (14,280 t). Her other dimensions were a length of 528 ft 6 in (161.09 m), a beam of 68 ft 6 in (20.88 m) and a draught of 21 ft (6.4 m). Her aircraft facilities included a 495 ft (151 m) flight deck, a hangar 231 ft (70 m) by 61 ft (19 m), eight arrestor wires and an aircraft lift 45 ft (14 m) by 34 ft (10 m).

Vindex built by Swan Hunter was launched on 4 May 1943 and completed on 3 December 1943. She had a complement of 700 men and displaced 13,455 long tons (13,671 t). Her other dimensions were a length of 524 ft (160 m), a beam of 68 ft 6 in (20.88 m) and a draught of 21 ft (6.4 m). Her aircraft and her aircraft facilities included a 495 ft (151 m) flight deck, a hangar 231 ft (70 m) by 61 ft (19 m), six arrestor wires and an aircraft lift 45 ft (14 m) by 34 ft (10 m).

Campania built by Harland and Wolff was launched on 17 June 1943 and completed on 9 February 1944. She had a complement of 700 men and displaced 12,450 long tons (12,650 t). Her other dimensions were a length of 540 ft (160 m), a beam of 70 ft (21 m) and a draught of 19 ft (5.8 m). Her aircraft and her aircraft facilities included a 495 ft (151 m) flight deck, a hangar 198 ft (60 m) by 61 ft 6 in (18.75 m), six arrestor wires and an aircraft lift 45 ft (14 m) by 34 ft (10 m).

Common to all three ships was a traditional rivetted hull, steel flight decks and a closed hangar. They had the same propulsion provided by diesel engines connected to two shafts giving 11,000 brake horsepower (BHP), which could propel the ship at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). Their armaments concentrated on anti-aircraft (AA) defence and comprised two 4 inch Dual Purpose, AA guns on a twin mount, sixteen 20 mm anti-aircraft cannons on eight twin mounts and sixteen 2 Pounder Pom Pom on four quadruple mounts. Aircraft assigned were either anti-submarine or fighter aircraft, which could be made up of a mixture of the Hawker Sea Hurricane, Grumman Wildcat, Fairey Fulmar or Fairey Swordfish. The exact composition of the embarked squadrons depended upon the mission. Some squadrons were composite squadrons for convoy defence and would be equipped with anti-submarine and fighter aircraft, while other squadrons working in a strike carrier role would only be equipped with fighter aircraft.