MV ''Amastra'' was one of nine Anglo-Saxon

Royal Dutch/Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...

oil tankers An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cr ...

converted to become a

Merchant Aircraft Carrier A merchant aircraft carrier (also known as a MAC ship, the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's official 'short name') was a limited-purpose aircraft carrier operated under British and Dutch civilian registry during World War II. MAC ships ...

(MAC ship). The group is collectively known as the ''Rapana'' class. MV ''Amastra'' was built at

Lithgows Lithgows Limited is a family-owned Scottish company that had a long involvement in shipbuilding, based in Kingston, Port Glasgow, on the River Clyde in Scotland. It has a continued involvement in marine resources. History Founding The Company ...

and completed in March, 1935 as an oil tanker for the

line. She was converted at Smiths Dock,

North Shields North Shields ( ) is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. The population of North Shields at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom cens ...

to a MAC ship, entering service in September 1943. As a MAC ship, she had no aircraft hangar, and continued to carry cargo, although operating under Royal Navy control. Only her air crew and the necessary maintenance staff were naval personnel. At the end of the war, ''Amastra'' was reconverted to an oil tanker, and in 1951 was renamed ''Idas''. She served in this capacity until broken up for scrap at

La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...

in June 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amastra Oil tankers Rapana-class merchant aircraft carriers 1934 ships