HMS Bamborough Castle

Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristics

HMS Bamborough Castle was one of 44 Template:Sclass2s built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in mid-1944 she sank the U-boat Template:GS on 9 December. Aside from a brief period assigned to the Fishery Protection Squadron in 1946, the rest of her career was spent as part of the fleet reserve until she was scrapped in May 1959.

Design and description

The Castle-class corvette was a stretched version of the preceding Flower class, enlarged to improve seakeeping and to accommodate modern weapons. The ships displaced Template:Convert at standard load and Template:Convert at deep load. They had an overall length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Convert and a deep draught of Template:Convert. They were powered by a pair of triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The engines developed a total of Template:Convert and gave a maximum speed of Template:Convert. The Castles carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert. The ships' complement was 99 officers and ratings.<ref>Lenton, p. 297</ref>

The Castle-class ships were equipped with a single [[QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun|QF Template:Convert Mk XVI 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 [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|Template:Convert Oerlikon]] light AA guns.<ref>Chesneau, p. 63; Lenton, p. 297</ref> 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 277 search radar and a HF/DF radio direction finder rounded out the Castles' sensor suite.<ref>Goodwin, p. 3</ref>

Construction and career

Bamborough Castle was laid down by J. Lewis & Sons at their shipyard in Aberdeen on 1 July 1943 and launched on 11 January 1944. She was completed on 30 May and served as a convoy escort, sinking the German U-boat Template:GS in the Barents Sea with depth charges on 9 December 1944. The ship was placed in reserve on 25 May 1945. Bamborough Castle was reactivated in January 1946 and assigned to the Fishery Protection Flotilla based at Plymouth before she returned to reserve in 1947.<ref>Goodwin, pp. 97–98</ref> The ship was sold for scrap in 1959 and arrived at Llanelli on 22 May to be broken up.<ref>Lenton, p. 298</ref>

Bibliography

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• {{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book

|_exclude=case, year, _debug
| last1 = Colledge
| first1 = J. J. 
| author-link1= J. J. Colledge
| last2 = Warlow
| first2 = Ben
| date = 2006
| orig-date = 1969
| title = Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present
| edition = Rev.
| location = London
| publisher = Chatham Publishing
| isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8
| OCLC = 67375475

}}

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