HMS Atheling
{{Short description|Royal Navy Ruler-class escort carrier}}
{{other ships|USS Glacier}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMS Atheling (D51) underway on 22 December 1943.jpg |Ship caption=HMS Atheling (D51) underway on 22 December 1943 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1942}} |Ship name=USS Glacier |Ship namesake= |Ship operator= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= 9 June 1942 |Ship launched= 7 September 1942 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship commissioned= 3 July 1943 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= 31 July 1943 |Ship homeport= |Ship fate= Transferred to Royal Navy |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship name=HMS Atheling |Ship namesake= |Ship commissioned= 28 October 1943 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=6 December 1946 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck=7 February 1947 |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=Pennant number:D51 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= Returned to US 13 December 1946. Sold as merchant ship, scrapped 1967 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=*{{sclass|Bogue|escort carrier}} (USA)
|Ship type= |Ship displacement= 7,800 tons (full load) |Ship length= {{convert|495|ft|7|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{convert|69|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= {{convert|26|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW) |Ship speed= {{convert|18|kn|km/h}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship complement=890 officers and men |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*2 × 4"/50, 5"/38 or 5"/51 guns |Ship armour= |Ship aircraft=18-24 |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Atheling (D51) was a Royal Navy Ruler-class escort carrier of the Second World War. She was a US built ship provided under lend lease and returned to the US at the end of hostilities.
History
File:HMS Atheling SLV H91.108.2080.jpg
She was built by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation (Tacoma, Washington) under Maritime Commission Contract. She was launched 7 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Richard P. Luker. The ship was commissioned on 12 July 1943 as USS Glacier AVG-33 (edit - ACV-33: all Bogue-class carriers changed designation August 20 1942) under the command of Commander Ward C. Gilbert. Her designation was changed to CVE-33 on 15 July 1943. Final work was carried out at US Navy Yard Puget Sound in July and she was transferred to the Royal Navy on 31 July 1943 at Vancouver, British Columbia
Following formal transfer the ship was sent to the Royal Canadian Navy dockyard at Esquimalt for conversion for British use. Following the work she was commissioned as Atheling on 28 October. She sailed via the Panama Canal and New York arriving at the Clyde UK in January 1944 and underwent further modification there to operate fighter aircraft.
Atheling ferried RN squadrons to the Far East in April 1944: 822 NAS and 823 NAS with their Fairey Barracudas at Madras on 11 April and 1837 NAS and 1838 NAS (Vought Corsair II) disembarked at Ceylon on 13 April,
At Trincomalee Atheling took on 1383 NAS and 899 NAS aircraft and personnel; ten Corsair and ten Supermarine Seafires respectively.
From November 1944 into 1945, she was engaged on aircraft ferry duties for British and US fleets. After the war she was used as troopship before return to the US.
From October 1945 to April 1946, her commanding officer was Capt. John Inglis, who was to become director of Naval Intelligence in July 1954.{{cite web|title=Inglis, (Sir) John Gilchrist Thesiger|url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RN_officersI.html |work=Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945 |publisher=www.unithistories.com|access-date=16 July 2011|author=Houterman, Hans|author2=Koppes, Jeroen}}
Atheling put into Norfolk, Virginia, 6 December 1946 for return to the United States. Her name was stricken from the Naval Register 7 February 1947 and she was sold to National Bulk Carriers as the merchant ship Roma 26 November 1947. She was scrapped in Italy in November 1967.
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 {{convert|492|ft|3|in|1}}, a beam of {{convert|69|ft|6|in|1}} and a draught of {{Convert|25|ft|6|in|m|1|abbr=on}}.Cocker (2008), p.82. Propulsion was provided a steam turbine, two boilers connected to one shaft giving 9,350 brake horsepower (SHP), which could propel the ship at {{convert|16.5|kn|lk=in}}.Cocker (2008), p.79.
Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft lifts {{convert|43|ft|1}} by {{convert|34|ft|1}}, one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires.Cocker (2008), p.82. Aircraft could be housed in the {{convert|260|ft|1}} by {{convert|62|ft|1}} hangar below the flight deck. Armament comprised: two 4 in/50, 5 in/38 or 5 in/51 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.
Notes
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References
- {{cite book|last=Cocker|first=Maurice|year=2008|title=Aircraft-Carrying Ships of the Royal Navy|publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud, Gloucestershire|isbn=978-0-7524-4633-2}}
External links
{{Commons category|HMS Atheling (D51)}}
- [http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-05CVE-Atheling.htm HMS ATHELING (D 51) - Ruler-class Escort Aircraft Carrier]
{{Bogue class escort carrier}}
{{Type C3-S-A1 ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atheling (D51)}}
Category:Ruler-class escort carriers