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HMS Lancaster Castle

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	HMS Lancaster Castle 1945 IWM FL 14523.jpg
image_caption	Lancaster Castle in March 1945
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	United Kingdom
flag	[[File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg	60px	RN Ensign]]
name	Lancaster Castle
namesake	Lancaster Castle
builder	Fleming & Ferguson
laid_down	10 September 1943
launched	14 April 1944
commissioned	15 September 1944
decommissioned	1947
identification	Pennant number: K691
fate	Scrapped, 6 September 1960
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

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 Lancaster Castle (K691) was a Castle-class corvette of the Royal Navy. It served on convoy defence duties from 1944 to 1945, it was put in reserve in 1946 and eventually scrapped in 1960.

History

Lancaster Castle was ordered on 19 December 1942 from Fleming and Ferguson, a Scottish shipbuilding company in Paisley, Renfrewshire. It was laid down on 10 November 1943 as Job Number 1546. It was launched on 14 April 1944, becoming the first Royal Navy ship to carry the name, and was commissioned on 15 September 1944.

In November 1944, Lancaster Castle joined 31st Escort Group. The other ships in the group were Berkeley Castle, Carisbrooke Castle, Dumbarton Castle, and Hadleigh Castle. In December, the group deployed to the Atlantic North West Approaches for convoy defence duties. They continued in this role through to March 1945 when they were detached for Russian convoy defence with Home Fleet units. A notable incident in this period was on 20 March 1945 when escorting convoy JW 65, they came under attack by six U-Boats, resulting in the loss of HMS Lapwing and the American merchant ships Horace Bushnel and Thomas Donaldson.

On 1 April 1945 they were detached from their escort of convoy RA 65 on arrival at Scapa Flow and continued convoy defence duties with 31st Escort Group in British coastal waters. On 8 May, following the cessation of hostilities with Germany, the Lancaster Castle was released from convoy defence duties and deployed in home waters for the support of occupation forces and the collection of surrendered U-Boats.

In 1946, the Lancaster Castle was paid-off and put in reserve at Portsmouth. The ship later refitted at Cardiff before being transferred to the Reserve Fleet Division in Harwich in 1949. After this closed in 1953, it was transferred to Hartlepool where it was laid-up before being put on the Disposal List in 1957. It was offered to Norway but was declined, and so was sold for demolition in Gateshead. It arrived for scrapping on 6 September 1960.

References

Mason, Geoffrey B.. (2002). "HMS LANCASTER CASTLE (K 691)".
"Ships hit from convoy JW-65".

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.

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