HMS Fencer (D64)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	5 September 1941
Launched:	4 April 1942
Commissioned (USN):	27 February 1943
Decommissioned (USN):
Commissioned (RN):	27 February 1943
Decommissioned (RN):	21 December 1945
Fate:	Sold as a merchant ship
Struck:	28 January 1947
General Characteristics
Displacement:	14,400 tons
Length:	491 ft 6 in (150 mm)
Beam:	105 ft (32 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW)
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	646 officers and enlisted
Armament:	2 × 4 in (102 mm), 8 × 40 mm, 20 × 20 mm guns
Aircraft:	20
Motto:

USS Croatan (CVE-14) (originally AVG-14 then ACV-14) was transferred to the United Kingdom on 27 February 1943 under lend-lease where she served as the HMS Fencer (D64). As an anti-submarine warfare carrier, Fencer escorted Atlantic, Russian and African convoys, even participating in a strike on the German battleship Tirpitz before being transferred to the Pacific. Following World War II, she returned to the United States 21 December 1946, stricken for disposal on 28 January 1947 and sold into merchant service 30 December as Sydney.

The ship went through a series of renamings, first to Roma in 1967, then Galaxy Queen in 1970, Lady Dina in 1972 and finally Caribia in 1973 before being scrapped in Spezia in September 1975.