HMS Begum (D38)

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Career

Laid down:	15 May 1941
Launched:	22 May 1942
Commissioned (RN):	9 January 1943
Decommissioned:	26 February 1946
Fate:	merchant ship, scrapped 1974
General Characteristics
Displacement:	9,800 tons
Length:	496 ft (151 m)
Beam:	69.5 ft (21.2 m)
Draft:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Speed:	18.5 knots (34 km/h)
Complement:	646 officers and men
Armament:	2 × 4 inch (102 mm) guns, 2 × 40 mm Bofors, 35 × 20 mm Oerlikon
Aircraft:	24

The USS Bolinas (CVE-36) (originally AVG-36, then later ACV-36) was an escort aircraft carrier launched 11 November 1942 by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp, Tacoma, Washington; sponsored by Mrs. G. B. Sherwood, wife of Commander Sherwood; and commissioned 22 July 1943, Captain H. L. Meadow in command.

On 2 August 1943 after being decommissioned Bolinas was transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease and renamed HMS Begum (D38). Begum served with the Royal Navy during World War II and after her return was declared surplus by the U. S. Navy. She was stricken for disposal 19 June 1946 and sold by the Navy into merchant service 16 April 1947 as Raki and later I Yung. She was scrapped in Taiwan in March 1974.