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Ruler-class escort carrier

1943 class of escort aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy

Summary

1943 class of escort aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	HMS Puncher.jpg
image_caption	HMS Puncher
section2	{{Infobox ship/class overview
name	Ruler class
builders	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
operators
class_before
class_after	None
built_range	1942–1943
total_ships_planned	23
total_ships_completed	23
total_ships_lost	2
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
type	Escort carrier
displacement	11420 LT
length	492 ft
beam	69 ft
draught	25 ft
power	9350 shp
propulsion	1 shaft geared steam turbines
speed	17 kn
complement	646
armament	*2 × 4-inch DP, AA guns in single mounts
aircraft	24
aircraft_facilities	*Hangar 260 x
*Two {{convert	42	x	34	ft	abbr	on}} lifts
notes	Built in two groups of 8 and 15

16 × Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun in twin mounts
20 × Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft cannons in single mounts
Two 42 x lifts
Nine arrestor wires

The Ruler class of escort aircraft carriers served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War. All twenty-three ships were built by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation in the United States as escort carriers, supplied under Lend-Lease to the United Kingdom. They were the most numerous single class of aircraft carriers in service with the Royal Navy.

As built they were intended for three types of operations, "Assault" or strike, convoy escort, or aircraft ferry.

After the Second World War some of the escort carriers were scrapped, while others had their flight decks removed and were converted to merchant ships (and all eventually scrapped by the 1970s).

Design and description

These ships were all larger and had greater aircraft capacity than all preceding American built escort carriers. They were laid down as escort carriers and were not converted merchant ships. Propulsion was provided by one shaft, two boilers and a steam turbine giving 9350 shp, which could propel the ship at 16.5 kn.

Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft 43 by lifts, one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. Aircraft could be housed in the 260 by hangar below the flight deck. Armament comprised: two 4 in/50-calibre dual purpose guns in single mounts, sixteen 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts and twenty 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannon in single mounts. They had a maximum capacity for twenty-four carrier-based aircraft which could be a mixture of Grumman Martlet, an American carrier-based fighter aircraft, or Vought F4U Corsair, another type of American carrier-based fighter aircraft, or Hawker Sea Hurricane fighter aircraft (a navalised Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft), and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber, or Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber / anti-submarine aircraft.

Ships

First group

(crewed by the Royal Canadian Navy)
X
XX
X

Second group

XX
X
X
XX
X
X (crewed by the Royal Canadian Navy) (torpedoed 22 August 1944, by U-354 west of the North Cape)
X
X
XX
X
(torpedoed 15 January 1945, by U-1172 in the Clyde estuary).

:X = Fitted for anti-submarine warfare. :XX = Fitted for strike-operations. :All the others were mainly used for aircraft transport with an added strike capability.

Notes

Bibliography

References

Cocker (2008), p. 81.
Cocker (2008), pp. 74–84.
"US-built escort aircraft carriers". naval-history.net.
All the ships had a complement of 646 men and an [[Length overall. overall length]] of {{convert. 492. ft. 3. in. 1, a [[Beam (nautical). beam]] of {{convert. 69. ft. 6. in. 1 and a [[Draft (hull). draught]] of {{Convert. 25. ft. 6. in. m. 1
Cocker (2008), p. 79.
"HMS Nabob (D 77) (British Escort carrier) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net".
Cocker (2008), p.83.
"HMS Thane (D 83) (British Escort carrier) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net".

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.

escort-aircraft-carrier-classes ruler-class-escort-carriers

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