HMS Vindex (D15)

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Career

Laid down:	1 July 1942
Launched:	4 May 1943
Commissioned:	15 November 1943
Decommissioned:	2 October 1947
Fate:	Merchant service as Port Vindex. Scrapped 1971.
General Characteristics
Displacement:	17,000 tons fully-loaded
Length:	524 ft
Beam:	68 ft
Draught:	25 ft
Propulsion:	Diesel, 10,700 bhp
Speed:	16 knots
Complement:	700
Armament:	2 x 4" guns, 16 x 2pdr guns (4x4), 16 x 20mm guns (8x2)
Aircraft:	15-20

HMS Vindex was an escort aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that saw service in World War II. She was built at Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyards in Tyneside. When construction started in 1942 she was intended as a merchant ship, but was completed and launched as an escort carrier, entering service at the end of 1943.

Vindex operated escorting convoys and doing anti-submarine work in the Atlantic and Arctic theatres. Her Swordfish aircraft were involved in the sinking of four U-boats during her service. She survived the war, and immediately afterwards served in the Far East transporting men and material to and from Japan. In 1947 she was decommissioned and sold to Port Line for commercial use, who operated the ship as the Port Vindex. In 1971 she was scrapped in Taiwan.