HMS Dasher (D37)

The Avenger-class escort carriers were converted U.S. Maritime Commission (USMC) type C3 American merchant ships. Their design was based on the United States Navy{{'}}s {{sclass|Long Island|escort carrier|4}} (AVG1). To differentiate between the two classes, the Royal Navy ships were prefixed with a 'B' (BAVG).Cocker (2008), p.78.

HMS Dasher (BAVG4) was built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania. The ship was originally named Rio de Janeiro, intended for passenger/cargo service with Moore-McCormack Lines, laid down as yard hull 189, USMC hull 62 on 14 March 1940, launched on 11 April 1941.{{cite web|last=Colton |first=Tim |title=Sun Shipbuilding |publisher=ShipbuildingHistory |date=March 28, 2014 |url=http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/large/sun.htm |access-date=13 October 2021}} She was converted to an escort aircraft carrier in the Tietjen & Lang shipyards New Jersey and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 2 July 1942.Poolman (1972), p.38.

Dasher had a complement of 555 men and an overall length of {{cvt|492|ft|3|in}}, a beam of {{cvt|66|ft|3|in}} and a draught of {{cvt|23|ft|3|in|m}}. She displaced {{convert|8200|LT|t|lk=on}} at normal load and {{convert|9000|LT|t}} at deep load. Propulsion was provided by four diesel engines connected to one shaft giving {{cvt|8500|bhp|lk=on}}, 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 and above the {{cvt|410|ft|adj=on}} long wooden flight deck, one aircraft lift {{cvt|43|by|34|ft}}, one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. Aircraft could be housed in the {{cvt|190|by|47|ft|adj=on}} half hangar below the flight deck.Poolman (1972), p.29. Armament comprised three single-mounted 4-inch dual-purpose guns, two forward and one aft, and fifteen 20 mm cannon on single or twin mounts. She had the capacity for 15 aircraft which could be a mixture of Grumman Martlet or Hawker Sea Hurricane fighters and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers.

File:The Royal Navy during the Second World War A13684.jpg

The ship was transferred to the Royal Navy and commissioned into RN service as HMS Dasher (D37) on 2 July 1942. She participated in Operation Torch, with her sister ship {{HMS|Biter|D97|2}}, carrying Sea Hurricanes of 804 Naval Air Squadron. After aircraft ferry duties in the Mediterranean, Dasher sailed to the Clyde in March 1943 and, having had her flight-deck lengthened by {{cvt|42|ft|m}}, she embarked Fairey Swordfish aircraft. She escorted one convoy successfully, but shortly after leaving with the second, Dasher suffered engine trouble and turned back. Shortly after getting to the Firth of Clyde on 27 March 1943, she suffered a major internal explosion and sank.

File:HMS Dasher memorial and plaque.JPG

Various possible causes have been suggested, including one of her aircraft crashing onto the flight deck and igniting petrol fumes from leaking tanks. Much of what happened remains unknown. The death toll, 379 out of 528 crewmen, despite rapid response and assistance from ships and rescue craft from Brodick and Lamlash on the Isle of Arran and from Ardrossan and Greenock on the Scottish mainland, was amongst the highest in British home waters. Many escaped from the ship but died of hypothermia or of burns suffered when escaped fuel ignited on the water. Most of the dead were buried at Ardrossan or Greenock.

The British blamed the bad design of the stowage and handling, while the US blamed the disaster on poor RN petrol-handling procedures. There were merits in both arguments, but thereafter the stowage on her British-operated sister ships was reduced from {{cvt|75000|-|88000|gal|L}} down to {{cvt|36000|gal|L}}, and the USN reduced theirs also but not as drastically.Brown, DK. Nelson to Vanguard, 2000, Chatham Publishing, pp. 64-65

The government of the time, eager to avoid damage to morale and anxious to avoid any suggestion of faulty US construction, tried to cover up the sinking. The local media were ordered to make no reference to the tragedy.

There were rumours that the authorities ordered the dead to be buried in an unmarked mass grave, but none had been found {{As of|2021|lc=y}}, and the Royal Navy said that a mass unmarked grave would have been against Admiralty policy and that all sources relating to the sinking of HMS Dasher are in the public domain.{{Cite news |title=The secrecy behind a wartime disaster at sea |last1=Pym |first1=Hugh |last2=Baker |first2=Felicity |website=BBC News |date=11 November 2021 |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59233709}}

A witness said in 2021 that survivors had told her that there was a mortuary where they were taken to identify about fifty bodies laid out, "just dumped". People living nearby saw the bodies over a high wall, "then they all disappeared".

Furious relatives protested and some of the dead were returned to their families for burial. The survivors were ordered not to talk about what happened. This policy subsequently attracted much criticism. There are now memorials to those lost at both Ardrossan and Brodick.

The wreck site lies approximately halfway on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry route between Ardrossan and Brodick and is a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act.

Teak boards from the flight deck of Dasher washed up on the beach at Ardrossan in 1999.{{cite web|url=http://www.hmsdasher.co.uk/intro.html |title=Introduction |work=HMS Dasher website, www.hmsdasher.co.uk |access-date=11 November 2021}} They were riddled with tubes made by burrowing teredo worms. A section of this wood featured in the "Flotsam and Jetsam" exhibition in the Millennium Dome and another piece is held by the North Ayrshire Heritage Centre in Saltcoats.

There has been speculation that one corpse from the sinking was used during the British deception Operation Mincemeat ("The Man Who Never Was"). The case is argued by authors John and Noreen Steele in their 2002 book The Secrets of HMS Dasher.{{cite web|url=https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2011/08/12/cause-of-fatal-wartime-explosion-on-aircraft-carrier-in-clyde-finally-revealed|title = Cause of fatal wartime explosion on aircraft carrier in Clyde finally revealed| date=11 August 2011 |access-date = 23 January 2023}}

{{reflist}}

• {{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}}
• {{cite book|last=Poolman|first=Kenneth|year=1972|title=Escort Carrier 1941–1945|publisher=Ian Allan|location=London|isbn=0-7110-0273-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Syrett|first=David|year=1994|title=The defeat of the German U-boats: the Battle of the Atlantic|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|location=Columbia, S.C|isbn=978-0-87249-984-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/defeatofgermanub00syre}}

• {{cite book|last=Steele|first=John|author2=Steele, Noreen|year=2010|title=The American Connection to the Sinking of HMS Dasher |publisher=North Shore Publishing|isbn=978-0953263714}}
• {{cite book|last=Steele|first=John|author2=Steele, Noreen|year=2002|title=The Secrets of HMS Dasher|publisher=Argyll Publishing|isbn=978-1902831398}}

{{commons category|HMS Dasher (D37)}}

• [http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2011/08/12/cause-of-fatal-wartime-explosion-on-aircraft-carrier-in-clyde-finally-revealed Article of The Shetland Times on the cause of the explosion]
• [http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/74100 Ardrossan CWGC Cemetery record]
• [http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/74262 Greenock CWGC Cemetery record]
• [http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/142000 Chatham CWGC Cemetery record]
• [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3260.html Uboat.net]
• [http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?63719 www.wrecksite.eu]

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{{Avenger class escort carrier}}

{{Type C3-P&C ships}}

{{Type C3 ships}}

{{MARCOMships}}

{{WWII US ships}}

{{March 1943 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dasher (D37)}}

Category:1941 ships

Category:Ships built by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company

Category:Ships built in Chester, Pennsylvania

Category:World War II aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom

Category:Avenger-class escort carriers

Category:Maritime incidents in March 1943

Category:1943 disasters in the United Kingdom

Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean

Category:Shipwrecks in the Firth of Clyde

Category:Protected wrecks of Scotland

Category:Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosions

Category:Aircraft carrier fires

Category:Explosions in 1943

Category:History of North Ayrshire

Category:History of Inverclyde

Category:Explosions in Scotland

Category:1943 in Scotland

Category:March 1943 in the United Kingdom