HMS Searcher (D40)
{{Short description|1943 Ruler-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS Searcher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:HMS Searcher (D40).jpg |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1942}} |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= 20 February 1942 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship homeport= |Ship fate= Transferred to the 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 Searcher(D20)’ |Ship namesake= |Ship commissioned= 7 April 1943 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=*Returned to the US Navy in 1945
|Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Greece |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Greece}} |Ship name=SS Captain Theo |Ship owner=J & A T Vatis |Ship acquired=1952 |Ship identification=IMO number: 6116575 |Ship fate=Sold to Tung Chao Yung in 1966 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Taiwan |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Republic of China}} |Ship name=SS Oriental Banker |Ship owner=Tung Chao Yung |Ship acquired=1966 |Ship identification=IMO number: 6116575 |Ship fate=Scrapped on 21 April 1976 in Taiwan |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=*{{sclass|Bogue|escort carrier}} (USA)
|Ship type= |Ship displacement=*As Searcher: 14,400 tons |Ship length= {{convert|491|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{convert|69|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= {{convert|26|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship power={{convert|8500|shp|MW|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=Steam turbines, 1 shaft |Ship speed= {{convert|18|kn|km/h}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship complement=646 officers and men |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*2 × 4"/50, 5"/38 or 5"/51 guns
|Ship armour= |Ship aircraft=20 |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Searcher was a Ruler-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy. Built in Seattle as a Bogue-class, she was transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease. Launched in 1942 she served until 29 November 1945. She was sold into merchant service and renamed Captain Theo. In 1966, she was renamed again to Oriental Banker and was finally scrapped in Taiwan in 1976.
Design and description
Ruler-class ships were larger and had a greater aircraft capacity than the preceding American-built escort carrier classes, and were laid down as escort carriers, not converted from merchant ships. They 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 by one shaft, two boilers and a steam turbine giving 9,350 shaft horsepower, 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. Her armament consisted of two 4"/50, 5"/38 or 5"/51 Dual Purpose guns in single mounts, sixteen 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts and twenty 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns 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.
Wartime Service
From 1943 Searcher operated mainly around the UK as a Fighter Carrier. In late December 1943 she provided Atlantic convoy escort, escorting ships to the US, and arriving at Norfolk on 2 January 1944. She participated in the attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz as part of the Home Fleet Strike force of Operation Tungsten, during which her role was to provide fighter cover. In August 1944 she took part in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France.
On 4 May 1945 aircraft from the escort carriers Searcher, {{HMS|Queen|D19|2}}, and {{HMS|Trumpeter|D09|2}}, taking part in Operation Judgement, sank the {{GS|U-711}} in Kilbotn harbour in the Arctic near Harstad, Norway.{{cite web|url=http://uboat.net/boats/u711.htm|title=U-711 at Uboat.net|access-date=2009-06-22}} Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers escorted by Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters attacked the U-boat crew barracks ship MS Black Watch, the submarine tender MS Senja and the floating flak battery Thetis (the former Norwegian coastal defence ship {{HNoMS|Harald Haarfagre}}). U-711 was alongside Black Watch when she was sunk in position {{coord|68|43.717|N|16|34.600|E}} by bombs aimed at Black Watch. Black Watch and Senja were also sunk. This was the last sinking of a U-Boat by the Fleet Air Arm, and the final air-raid of the war in Europe.
Searcher was sent to the Far East as part of the British Pacific Fleet but arrived in mid-August as the war ended.
File:Twin 40mm bofors gun on escort carrier.jpg anti-aircraft gun.]]
Return to the US Navy
Merchant Service
The decommissioned escort carrier was sold to J & A T Vatis, a Greek shipping company, and renamed Captain Theo in 1952. In November 1961, she encountered and rescued 11-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault, who had been adrift at sea in a cork raft for four days after surviving a mass murder aboard the {{ship||Bluebelle|ship|2}} and the subsequent scuttling of the ketch by the murderer. The ship was sold again in 1966 to the Chinese shipping magnate Tung Chao Yung, becoming Oriental Banker.
Fate
Oriental Banker was scrapped at Kaohsiung{{csr|register=MSI|id=6116575|access-date=21 June 2009}} in Taiwan, commencing on 21 April 1976.{{cite web|url=http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/carriers/uk_esc.htm#d40|title=World Aircraft Carrier List - HMS Searcher|access-date=2009-06-22}}
Citations
{{reflist}}
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}}
- The Attack on 'Black Watch (Harald Isachsen, Harstad, 2009, {{ISBN|978-82-998024-2-0}} - in Norwegian)
{{Bogue class escort carrier}}
{{Type C3-S-A1 ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Searcher (D40)}}
Category:Type C3-S-A1 ships of the Royal Navy
Category:Ships built in Seattle
Category:World War II aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom