Castle class corvette

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HMS Leeds Castle
HMS Leeds Castle
General Characteristics (original configuration) RN Ensign
Displacement: 1,060 tons
Length: 252 feet (76.8 m)
Beam: 37 feet (11.3 m)
Draught: 10 feet (3.0 m)
Propulsion: 2 water tube boilers, 1 four cylinder triple expansion steam engine driving a single screw 2,750 hp (2 MW)
Speed: 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h) maximum, 10 knots (19 km/h) cruising
Range: 9,500 nautical miles at 10 knots (17,600 km at 19 km/h)
Complement: 112
Armament: One 4 inch (100 mm) Quick Firing Mk.XIX High Angle/Low Angle combined air/surface gun
1 Squid Anti-submarine mortar
1 depth charge rail, 15 depth charges
Two 20 mm twin anti-aircraft cannon and six 20 mm single cannon.
Radar: Type 272 originally
Sonar: Types 144Q and 147B originally

The Castle-class corvettes were an updated version of the much more numerous Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Navy, and started appearing during late 1943. They were equipped with radar as well as asdic.

The Admiralty had decided to cease Flower class construction in favour of the larger River-class frigates as the Flower class had originally been intended for coastal escort work and were not entirely satisfactory for Atlantic convoy service. In particular, they were slow, poorly armed, and rolled badly in rough seas which quickly exhausted their crews. However, many shipyards were not large enough to build frigates and so the Castle class was designed to be built on small slipways.

Appearance was much like the later "long forecastle" variant of the Flowers and they were a little larger (around 1,200 tons — about 200 tons more than the Flowers, and 40 ft (12 m) longer).

The most obvious difference was the lattice mainmast instead of the pole one fitted to the Flowers. There was also a more "square cut" look to the stern although it was still essentially a cruiser spoon type, this difference was only visible from abaft the beam.

Armament was similar except that the depth charge fitment had been replaced by one for the Squid anti-submarine mortar.

Propulsion machinery was identical to the Flowers, and experienced officers felt that they were seriously under powered, having a tendency to turn into the wind despite everything the helmsman could do. The fact that attacks with Squid required a fairly low speed compared to depth charge attacks only made matters worse.

Most had been scrapped by the end of the 1950s, but a few survived a little longer as weather ships. However, the last was the Uruguayan Montevideo, originally Rising Castle and scrapped in 1975.

Most were operated by the Royal Navy, but twelve were assigned to the Royal Canadian Navy and one to the Royal Norwegian Navy. Three Castles were sunk through enemy action, and Castles participated in the sinking of seven U-boats.

Contents

[edit] Ships

Royal Canadian Navy

  • Arnprior (ex-HMS Rising Castle)
  • Bowmanville (ex-HMS Hunney Castle)
  • Copper Cliff (ex-HMS Hever Castle)
  • Hespeler (ex-HMS Guildford Castle)
  • Humberstone (ex-HMS Norham Castle)
  • Huntsville (ex-HMS Woolvesey Castle)
  • Kincardine (ex-HMS Tamworth Castle)
  • Leaside (ex-HMS Walmer Castle)
  • Orangeville (ex-HMS Hedingham Castle)
  • Petrolia (ex-HMS Sherborne Castle)
  • St. Thomas (ex-HMS Sandgate Castle)
  • Tillsonburg (ex-HMS Pembroke Castle)

Royal Navy

Royal Norwegian Navy

[edit] Cancelled

  • Alton Castle
  • Appleby Castle
  • Bere Castle
  • Caldecot Castle
  • Calshot Castle
  • Dover Castle
  • Dudley Castle
  • Monmouth Castle
  • Norwich Castle
  • Oswestry Castle
  • Pendennis Castle
  • Rhuddlan Castle
  • Thornbury Castle
  • Tonbridge Castle
  • Warksworth Castle

[edit] Castles sunk or destroyed in action

[edit] U-boats sunk by Castles

[edit] External links

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