HMS Ocean (R68)

HMS ''Ocean'' was a Royal Navy light fleet aircraft carrier of 13,190 tons built in Glasgow by Alexander Stephen & Sons. Her keel was laid in November 1942, and she was commissioned on 8 August 1945.

Construction and design

The ''Colossus'' class was a class of relatively small aircraft carriers which were designed to be built quickly to meet the Royal Navy's requirements for more carriers to allow it to fight a global war. In order to allow speedy build, they were designed to mercantile rather than navy hull standards, while armour protection and long-range anti aircraft guns were not fitted. Sixteen ships were ordered by the end of 1942, but the last six were completed to a modified design as the ''Majestic''-class.

The ships were between and long overall, at the waterline and between perpendiculars. Beam was and draught was at deep load. Displacement was standard and deep load. Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers supplied steam to two sets of Parsons geared steam turbines which in turn drove two propeller shafts. The machinery was rated at , giving a speed of . The ships had a range of at a speed of .

The flight deck was long and wide, while the hangar was long and wide with a clear overhead height of . While designed to carry 24 aircraft in 1942, by the time that they became operational, the ships were accommodating 37 aircraft. ''Ocean'' was fitted with a close-in anti-aircraft armament of six quadruple and seven single 2-pounder (40 mm) pom-pom autocannon and twelve single Bofors 40 mm guns. The ship had a crew of 1300 officers and ratings.

''Ocean'' was laid down at Alexander Stephen & Sons Glasgow shipyard on 8 November 1942 and was launched on 8 July 1944. In March 1944, a request was made by the Australian government to obtain a light fleet carrier and 6inch cruisers. The Royal Navy put forward ''Ocean'' as being available for purchase however in mid 1945 the RAN decided not to pursue the purchase due to manpower shortages during the war. The ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 8 August 1945. In total, the ship required 20772 man-months to build.HMS Ocean Colossal class carrier '' Ships Monthly'' May 2020 pages 44-47

Service

Following commissioning, ''Ocean'' was sent to Cammell Laird at Birkenhead for modification to operate night fighters - changes included revised radar (with American SM-1 radar replacing the British Type 277 height-finding radar) and improved direction-finding equipment. On completion of these changes in November 1945, ''Ocean'' was based at Rosyth for flying trials, with the first trials of the de Havilland Sea Hornet twin-engine fighter and the last carrier operations of the Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber. On 3 December 1945, a Sea Vampire flown by Eric "Winkle" Brown made the first ever carrier landing of a purely jet-powered aircraft onto ''Ocean'' (although earlier that year a composite jet and piston engined Ryan FR-1 Fireball had made a carrier landing under jet power after its radial engine failed.)

In December 1945, ''Ocean'' transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, with an air group consisting of the Supermarine Seafire-equipped 805 Naval Air Squadron and 816 Naval Air Squadron, equipped with Fairey Firefly night fighters. She disembarked her air group at Malta in June 1946 to allow her to be used as a troopship to carry troops to Singapore. In October 1946 she provided fire-fighting and medical support to the two destroyers and when they struck mines in the Corfu Channel incident. In May 1948, she formed part of the task force supporting the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine, providing air cover after RAF bases in Palestine had been evacuated.

''Ocean'' twice deployed to Korea, firstly from May to October 1952 and then from May to November 1953. In August 1952 a formation of Hawker Sea Fury aircraft from the carrier engaged North Korean MiG-15 jets in air combat, shooting one down.

In August 1954 she joined the Home Fleet's training squadron but saw an active role in the Suez crisis. In the first ever large-scale helicopter borne assault, Westland Whirlwind and Bristol Sycamore helicopters from ''Ocean'' and landed 425 men of 45 Commando and 23 tons of stores into Port Said in 90 minutes. After Suez, the ship did not see much more active service. In October 1957, Ocean transported the Band of the Royal Marines, a party of Green Howards plus Admiral Lord Fraser of the North Cape as the Queen's representative to the funeral of King Haakon VII in Oslo. In September 1957, the Soviet Union protested when accompanied ''Ocean'' on a visit to Helsinki. She went into extended reserve in 1958 and was scrapped in 1962 at Faslane.

In his book on the Hungarian Revolution, Peter Fryer briefly refers to the "arrest of twelve British seamen in the aircraft carrier Ocean, following unlawful meetings" in October 1956.

References

Sources

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External links

Maritimequest HMS ''Ocean'' photo gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocean (R68)
Colossus-class aircraft carriers
Ships built in Glasgow
1944 ships
Cold War aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom
Korean War aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in 1946