HMS Royalist (89)
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 HMS Royalist leaving Valletta Grand Harbour, Malta 1956. She had just recently had a major refit for her transfer to the Royal New Zealand Navy, April 1956. |
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| Career (UK) |  Royal Navy |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Dido-class light cruiser |
| Name: | HMS Royalist |
| Builder: | Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Greenock, Scotland) |
| Laid down: | 21 March 1940 |
| Launched: | 30 May 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 10 September 1943 |
| Recommissioned: | 1967 |
| Decommissioned: | November 1967 |
| Out of service: | Loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy between 1956 to 1966 |
| Reclassified: | In reserve between 1946 to 1956 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, Sold to Nissho Co, Japan, in November 1967 and she left Auckland under tow to Osaka on 31 December 1967 |
| Career (New Zealand) |  Royal New Zealand Navy |
| Name: | HMNZS Royalist |
| Commissioned: | 1956 |
| Out of service: | Returned to Royal Navy control 1967 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 5,950 tons standard 7,200 tons full load |
| Length: | 485 ft (148 m) pp 512 ft (156 m) oa |
| Beam: | 50.5 ft (15.4 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | Parsons geared turbines Four shafts Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers 62,000 shp (46 MW) |
| Speed: | 32.25 knots (60 km/h) |
| Range: | 2,414 km (1,500 miles) at 30 knots 6,824 km (4,240 miles) at 16 knots 1,100 tons fuel oil |
| Complement: | 530 |
| Armament: | Original configuration: 8x 5.25 in (133 mm) dual guns, 6x 20 mm dual AA guns, 3x 2 pdr (37 mm/40 mm) pom-poms quad guns, 2x 21 in (533 mm) triple Torpedo Tubes. |
| Armor: | Original configuration: Belt: 3inch, Deck: 1inch, Magazines: 2inch, Bulkheads: 1inch. |
| Notes: | Pennant number 89 |
HMS Royalist was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Bellona subgroup of the Royal Navy. She was a modified Dido design with only four turrets but improved AA armament - aka Dido Group 2. She was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Greenock, Scotland), UK), with the keel being laid down on 21 March 1940. She was launched on 30 May 1942, and commissioned 10 September 1943.
[edit] History
Royalist joined the Home Fleet and served on Arctic convoy duties. She also covered some of the carrier raids against the German battleship Tirpitz whilst the Tirpitz was in Norway. Royalist was then ordered to the Mediterranean to support the landings in the south of France (Operation Dragoon) in August 1944, as part of the escort carrier squadron TF88.1. On 15 September, accompanied by HMS Teazer, she sank the transports KT4 and KT26 off Cape Spatha. She was then stationed in the Aegean Sea until late 1944, when she was ordered to the East Indies. By April 1945 she was with the 21st Escort Carrier Squadron as Flagship, supporting the Rangoon landings (Operation Dracula), and the following month was part of a force that unsuccessfully attempted to intercept a Japanese cruiser and destroyer evacuating troops from the Andaman Islands. For the remainder of the war she covered the carrier raids against targets in the East Indies and Sumatra.
Royalist was withdrawn from the East Indies after the conclusion of hostilities, and returned home to Naval Reserve. In 1954 she began a major refit which was completed in April 1956, and the ship was handed over to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 9 July 1956. In November 1965 she suffered a breakdown when her boilers became contaminated with salt water, and had to be towed back to Auckland. She was paid off on 4 June 1966, After eleven years in the RNZN, Royalist reverted back to Royal Navy control in 1967. She was sold to Nissho Co, Japan, in November 1967 and was towed from Auckland on 31 December 1967, destined for Osaka.
Scottish author Alistair MacLean served on Royalist during the Second World War, and used his experiences as background for his acclaimed first novel HMS Ulysses as well as for some of his subsequent works.
[edit] References
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- WWII cruisers
- HMS Royalist at Uboat.net
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