HMS Pretoria Castle (F61)

HMS "Pretoria Castle" was an armed merchant cruiser and escort aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that saw service during World War II. She had previously been the ocean liner "Pretoria Castle" of the Union-Castle Line; built at Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Northern Ireland and launched in 1938.

She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in October 1939, and converted to an armed merchant cruiser with 6-inch and 3-inch guns, entering service in November 1939. In this role she served mainly in the South Atlantic.

In July 1942 she was bought outright by the Navy for conversion to an escort carrier at the Swan Hunter shipyards in Tyne and Wear. She was commissioned in this role in July 1943 and was operated as a trials and training carrier, seeing no active combat service.

In 1945 she became part of aviation history when British test pilot Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown landed Bell Airacobra Mk1 on her flight deck - the first carrier landing made using an aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage. This was due to a declared emergency during initial trials for rubber deck landings planned for future carriers.

Post-war, the ship was sold back to the Union-Castle Line in 1946 and converted back to a passenger liner, being renamed the "Warwick Castle" and operating on routes from England to South Africa. She was eventually sold and scrapped in Barcelona in 1962.

References

*cite web | title=Royal Navy Research Archive | url=http://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/ESCORT/PRETORIA_CASTLE.htm
*cite web | title=uboat.net | url=http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3299.html
*cite web | title=The Late Great Ocean Liners | url=http://www.lategreatliners.com/uk_unioncastle.htm
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