HMS Portchester Castle

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

HMS Portchester Castle was a Template:Sclass2 built in 1943 and scrapped in 1958. She was the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named after Portchester Castle in Hampshire. She was involved in the sinking of two German U-boats during her wartime career. Post-war she was used in two feature films and a comedy.

Construction and career

She was launched on 21 June 1943 at Swan Hunter shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Sinking of U-484

On 9 September 1944 Portchester Castle and Template:HMS sank the Template:GS in the North Atlantic north-west of Ireland, in position Template:Coord.<ref name=PCU>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Sinking of U-1200

As one of four ships in 30th Escort Group under the command of Denys Rayner, Portchester Castle shared in the sinking of the Template:GS<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> south of Ireland (in position Template:Coord) on 11 November 1944, along with her sister ships Template:HMS, Template:HMS and Template:HMS.<ref name=PCU/>

Decommissioning

She was paid off in 1947 and scrapped at Troon, Scotland on 14 May 1958.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Film appearances

In 1951 Portchester Castle was employed to represent the fictitious HMS Saltash Castle in the film The Cruel Sea (1953). The ship was also seen in the film The Man Who Never Was (1955) and The Navy Lark (1959). In both Sea and Lark she is shown wearing the pennant number F362 rather than her own K362.Template:Cn

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• {{#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

}}

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Rayner, D.A., Escort: The Battle of the Atlantic, London: William Kimber, pp. 224–229