HMS Nabob (D77)

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Career

Laid down:	20 October 1942
Launched:	22 March 1943
Commissioned (RN):	7 September 1943
Decommissioned:	30 September 1944
Fate:	merchant ship; sold for scrap, 1977
General Characteristics
Displacement:	15,390 tons (full)
Length:	495.66 ft (151.1 m)
Beam:	69.5 ft (21.2 m)
Draught:	25.5 ft (7.8 m)
Speed:	18 knots
Complement:	1,000 officers and men
Armament:	2 × 5 inch guns, 8 × twin 40 mm Bofors, 20 × single 20 mm Oerlikon
Aircraft:	18-24

HMS Nabob (D77) was a Bogue/Prince William-class escort aircraft carrier which served in the Royal Navy during 1943 and 1944. The ship was built in the United States as USS Edisto (CVE-41) (originally AVG-41 then later ACV-41) but did not serve with the United States Navy.

She was laid down on 20 October 1942, launched 22 March 1943, and transferred under Lend-Lease to the United Kingdom on 7 September 1943 prior to her commissioning as HMS Nabob (D77) into the Royal Navy. She served as an anti-submarine warfare carrier and was manned by personnel of the Royal Canadian Navy.

On 22 August 1944 she was torpedoed by U-354 in the Barents Sea, while returning from a strike against the German battleship Tirpitz (Operation Goodwood) and sustained heavy damage. Five days later she steamed into Scapa Flow under her own power but had lost 21 men.

She was eventually judged not worth repairing, was beached and abandoned then cannibalized for other ships and decommissioned on 30 September 1944. She was returned to United States custody and sold into merchant service 26 October 1946 as the merchant Nabob (later renamed Glory). She was sold for scrap in Taiwan in 1977.

Nabob is one of three Royal Navy escort carriers built in the United States which is listed as lost in action during World War II.