The Royal Navy during the Second World War A22094

MV ''Ancylus'' 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 ...

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 c ...

converted to become a

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

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

Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three pow ...

and completed in January, 1935 as an oil tanker for the Anglo Saxon

line. She was converted to a MAC ship, entering service in October, 1943. As a MAC ship, she had no aircraft hangar, and continued to carry normal cargoes, although operating under Royal Navy control. Only her air crew and the necessary maintenance staff were naval personnel. At the end of the war, ''Ancylus'' was reconverted to an oil tanker, being renamed ''Imbricaria'' in 1952. She served in this capacity until broken up for scrap at

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) 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 ci ...

in December 1954.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancylus Oil tankers

Ancylus ''Ancylus'' is a genus of very small, freshwater, air-breathing limpets. They are aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the tribe Ancylini within the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails and their allies.Bouchet, P.; Rosenberg, G. ( ...

1934 ships