HMS Pretoria Castle (F61)
HMS Pretoria Castle | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pretoria Castle |
| Port of registry | London |
| Builder | Harland & Wolff |
| Yard number | 1006 |
| Launched | 12 October 1938 |
| Completed | 18 April 1939 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Requisitioned for Royal Navy October 1939 |
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Pretoria Castle |
| Commissioned | 28 November 1939 |
| Decommissioned | August 1942 |
| Refit | Converted from armed merchant cruiser to escort carrier |
| Identification | Pennant number F61 |
| Commissioned | 29 July 1943 |
| Decommissioned | 26 January 1946 |
| Fate | Sold back to the Union-Castle Line 1946 |
| Name | RMMV Warwick Castle |
| Port of registry | London |
| Acquired | 1946 |
| Fate | Scrapped July 1962 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | 17,392 GRT |
| Displacement | 23,450 tons |
| Length | 594 ft (181.1 m) |
| Beam | 76 ft (23.2 m) |
| Draught | 29 ft (8.8 m) |
| Installed power | 16,000 bhp (12,000 kW); 3,284 NHP |
| Propulsion | Diesel engines, twin screw |
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Aircraft carried | 21 |
HMS Pretoria Castle (F61) was a Union-Castle ocean liner that in the Second World War was converted into a Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser, and then converted again into an escort carrier. After the war she was converted back into a passenger liner and renamed Warwick Castle.