HMS Tracker (D24)

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Career

Laid down:	3 November 1941
Launched:	7 March 1942
Commissioned:	31 January 1943
Decommissioned:	2 November 1946
Fate:	Merchant service as Corrientes. Scrapped 1964.
General Characteristics
Displacement:	14,400 tons
Length:	492 ft (150 m)
Beam:	102 ft (31.1 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp
Speed:	18 knots
Complement:	646 officers and enlisted
Armament:	2 × 4 in, 8 × 40 mm, 20 × 20 mm guns
Aircraft:	16-21

HMS Tracker (D24) was a Bogue-class escort carrier that was built in the United States and served in the Royal Navy during World War II.

She was constructed in the U.S. by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding in Tacoma, originally intended to be the merchant ship Mormacmail. However, before completion she was purchased by the U.S. Navy, and in 1942 was given the designation BAVG-6 and converted to an escort carrier at Wilamette Iron & Steel, Portland, Oregon. Upon completion in early 1943 she was transferred to the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Tracker.

Tracker served as a convoy escort during 1943-44 in the North Atlantic and Arctic theatres. She originally carried Swordfish and Seafire aircraft of 813 Squadron; in January 1944 switching to the Avengers and Wildcats of 846 Squadron. In April 1944 her aircraft, together with those from HMS Activity were responsible for the sinking of U-boat U-288, during convoy JW-58.

In June 1944 while part of the naval screen for the D-Day landings, she collided with the Canadian frigate HMCS Teme, causing damage to both ships. In November 1944 the ship sailed to the U.S. to be used as an aircraft transport, and spent the remainder of the war ferrying aircraft and personnel in the Pacific.

In August 1945 she made a final trip to the UK, being returned to the U.S. Navy in November 1945. She was sold in November 1946 and entered service as the merchant ship Corrientes, based in Argentina. She was scrapped in 1964.

See HMS Tracker for other ships of this name.