RFA ''Wave King'' (A182) was a Wave-class fleet support tanker of the

Royal Fleet Auxiliary The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service and provides logistical and operational support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The RF ...

built at Govan by Harland & Wolff Ltd. In 1945, she served in the Far East with the

British Pacific Fleet The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War. It was formed from aircraft carriers, other surface warships, submarines and supply vessels of the RN and British Commonwealth ...

, designated

Task Force 57 Task Force 57 (TF 57) is a US Navy task force. It was previously active during World War II. Task Force numbers were in constant use, and there were several incarnations of TF 57 during World War II. Land based bombers of the United States Air Fo ...

upon joining the United States fleet. On 6 May 1945 ''Wave King'' and ''Wave Monarch'' were with the Logistic Support Group 300 miles south-east of Miyako to refuel Task Force 57 which was launching air strikes against island targets in the

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

campaign. ''Wave King'' struck a rock north of São Luís de Maranhão,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, on 9 August 1956 and suffered severe damage. She arrived at

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

on 16 April 1960 for scrapping.

References

Wave-class oilers Tankers of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary 1944 ships Ministry of War Transport ships Ships built in Govan Ships built by Harland and Wolff Maritime incidents in 1956 {{UK-aux-ship-stub