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HMS Amberley Castle

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	HMS Amberley Castle 1945 IWM FL 1297.jpg
image_caption	Amberley Castle in January 1945
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	United Kingdom
flag
name	Amberley Castle
namesake	Amberley Castle
laid_down	31 May 1943
launched	27 November 1943
renamed	*Weather Advisor, 22 September 1960
commissioned	24 November 1944
reclassified	As weather ship, 1959
identification	Pennant number: K386
fate	Sold for scrapped, 1982
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
header_caption	(as built)
class
displacement	*1010 LT (standard)
length	252 ft
beam	33 ft
draught	13 ft (deep load)
power	*2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
*{{convert	2880	ihp	lk	in	abbr=on}}
propulsion	1 shaft, 1 triple-expansion engine
speed	16.5 kn
range	6500 nmi at 15 kn
complement	99
sensors	*Type 145 and Type 147 ASDIC
armament	*1 × QF 4 in DP gun
*2 × twin, 2 × single [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon	{{convert	20	mm	1	abbr	on}}]] AA guns

Admiral Fitzroy, 1977
2880 ihp
Type 272 search radar
HF/DF radio direction finder
2 × twin, 2 × single 20 mm AA guns
1 × 3-barrel Squid anti-submarine mortar
1 × depth charge rail and 2 throwers; 15 depth charges HMS Amberley Castle (K386) was a built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy during the Second World War. Completed in late 1944, the ship spent the rest of the war escorting 11 convoys between the UK and Gibraltar. After the surrender of German in May 1945, she was assigned air-sea rescue duties until early 1946 when Amberley Castle was reduced to reserve. She was converted into a weather ship in 1959 and subsequently renamed Weather Advisor. The ship was renamed Admiral Fitzroy in 1977 before she was sold for scrap in 1982.

Design and description

The Castle-class corvette was a stretched version of the preceding , enlarged to improve seakeeping and to accommodate modern weapons. The ships displaced 1010 LT at standard load and 1510 LT at deep load. The ships had an overall length of 252 ft, a beam of 36 ft The engine developed a total of 2880 ihp and gave a speed of 16.5 kn. The Castles carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 6500 nmi at 15 kn. The ships' complement was 99 officers and ratings.

The Castle-class ships were equipped with a single QF 4 in Mk XVI dual-purpose gun forward, but their primary weapon was their single three-barrel Squid anti-submarine mortar. This was backed up by one depth charge rail and two throwers for 15 depth charges. The ships were fitted with two twin and a pair of single mounts for 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns. Provision was made for a further four single mounts if needed. They were equipped with Type 145Q and Type 147B ASDIC sets to detect submarines by reflections from sound waves beamed into the water. A Type 272 search radar and a HF/DF radio direction finder rounded out the Castles' sensor suite.

Construction and career

Amberley Castle was ordered on 23 January 1943 and was laid down by S.P. Austin & Son at their shipyard in Sunderland on 31 May. The ship was launched on 27 November, and completed on 24 November 1944. After several weeks of training in Western Approaches Command's Anti-Submarine Training School at Tobermory, Mull, she joined the Liverpool Escort Pool on 22 December. By the time that Germany surrendered in May 1945, Amberley Castle had escorted 11 convoys between the UK and Gibraltar. She was assigned air-sea rescue duties from late May until February 1946. The ship was put into reserve at Portsmouth until 1952 and was transferred to Penarth in 1953.

Weather ship

Oxford Castle was converted to a weather ship at Blyth, Northumberland in 1959–1960 and renamed to Weather Advisor in a ceremony on 22 September 1960 at the James Watt Dock, Greenock by Lady Sutton, wife of Sir Graham Sutton, the then director-general of the Met Office. She replaced the ship known as Weather Observer, which had carried out the role since 1947. The ship was scrapped at Troon in 1982.

Citations

Bibliography

References

and a deep [[draft (hull). draught]] of {{convert. 13. ft. 9. in. m. 1. They were powered by a four-cylinder [[Marine steam engine#Triple or multiple expansion. triple-expansion steam engine]] driving one [[propeller shaft]] using steam provided by two [[Admiralty three-drum boiler]]s.Goodwin, p. 2
Lenton, p. 297
Campbell, p. 63; Lenton, p. 297
Goodwin, p. 3
Goodwin, pp. 89–94
(21 September 1960). "Second Frigate as a Weather Ship". The Glasgow Herald.
(15 April 1960). "Ship's 100th trip... two more to go". The Bulletin.
Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 15

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

castle-class-corvettes 1943-ships

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