HMS Knaresborough Castle

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

Knaresborough Castle was ordered on 19 January 1943, laid down at Blyth Dry Dock in Blyth, Northumberland, on 22 April, launched on 28 September 1943 and completed on 5 April 1944. After several weeks of training at Western Approaches Command's Anti-Submarine Training School at Tobermory, Mull, the ship joined Escort Group B3 on the UK-Gibraltar run. On 18–19 October, Knaresborough Castle and her sister ship, rescued some of the crew of LCT 488 before it capsized. The ship was refitted at Ardrossan two months later. Upon its completion, she received refresher training at Tobermory for several weeks and was then assigned to the Liverpool Escort Pool. Knaresborough Castle finished the last of her 16 convoys on 27 May 1945. She returned to Gibraltar at the end of June to begin her air-sea rescue assignment. The ship arrived at Freetown on 12 November with the same assignment. The corvette returned to Harwich on 27 January 1946 and was reduced to reserve upon her arrival. Knaresborough Castle completed a refit at Grimsby on 27 August 1949 and returned to reserve. The ship was activated in September 1952 and briefly refitted for service with Plymouth Command as an air training target ship. She took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Knaresborough Castle completed a refit on 15 February 1954 and returned to reserve in July. The ship was sold for scrap in 1956 and arrived at Port Glasgow on 16 March to begin demolition.

Citations

Bibliography

References

1. 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
2. Lenton, p. 297
3. Campbell, p. 63; Lenton, p. 297
4. Goodwin, p. 3
5. Goodwin, pp. 195–199
6. Souvenir Programme, ''Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953'', HMSO, Gale and Polden
7. Goodwin, p. 199
8. Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 235