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HMS Hartland Point
Photo courtesy of Mike West |
Royal Navy Maintenance and Supply
Ships
In
total, twenty-one maintenance ships were ordered from Canadian shipbuilders for
use by the Royal Navy. Sixteen 'Victory' type vessels were completed by
West Coast shipbuilders but as the war ended, the orders for the final five
ships were cancelled. These five vessels, Mull of Oa, Rattray Head,
Orfordness, Selsey Bill and Tarbet Ness were completed as merchant ships
and as they had been built to a high specification, found a ready market as
cargo liners. All these maintenance ships were owned by the Royal Navy but
two were later transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy.
In
addition to the maintenance ships which were owned by the Royal Navy, there were
sixteen 'Fort' ships which were used as supply or stores issuing ships.
These sixteen ships, although under Royal Navy instruction, were owned by the
Dominion of Canada and placed on bareboat charter to the British Government
under the management of liner companies and crewed by merchant seamen.
These ships were returned to Canada at the end of the war except for five which
were permanently transferred to the Royal Navy. The Supply or Stores
Issuing Ships were:
Ammunition
Carriers: Fort Rosalie, Fort Sandusky, Fort Wayne.
Air
Stores Ships: Fort Colville, Fort Langley.
Stores
Issuing Ships (Naval): Fort Providence, Fort Wrangell.
Stores
Issuing Ships (Victualling): Fort Alabama, Fort Beauharnois, Fort
Charlotte, Fort Constantine, Fort Dunvegan, Fort Duquesne, Fort
Edmonton, Fort Kilmar, Fort McDonnell.
The
ships' histories can be found in the Fort Fleet List
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Royal Navy Maintenance Ships
Abbreviations:
BDD,
Vancouver, BC - Burrard DD Co. Ltd., Vancouver, BC
WCSB,
Vancouver, BC - West Coast Shipbuilders Ltd., Vancouver, BC
BDD/VDD,
Vancouver, BC - Burrard DD Co. Ltd/Vancouver DD Co. Ltd.
NVSR
North Vancouver, BC - North Vancouver Ship Repairs
Name
changes shown in italics
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Beachy Head
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Fleet
Role:
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Escort
Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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March 1945
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Builder:
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BDD,
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1947:
Transferred to Royal Netherlands Navy as Vulkaan;
1950: Returned to
Royal Navy as Beachy Head;
1952:
Acquired by Royal Canadian Navy;
1953:
Renamed Cape Scott;
1959:
Commissioned as first mobile repair ship;
1978:
Broken up.
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Berry Head
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Fleet
Role:
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Escort Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (8580
dt)
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Completion
Date:
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May 1945
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Builder:
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BDD North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1945/46: In service SE Asia and Far East;
1960/62: Refitted and modernized at Chatham, Kent;
1963: Placed in Operational Reserve at Portsmouth
1986/7
Scrapped
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Buchan Ness
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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July 1945
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Builder:
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WCSB, Vancouver,
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History:
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1945/6: Service in Far East;
1947: Placed in reserve;
1959: Scrapped in UK.
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Cape Wrath
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Fleet
Role:
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Coastal Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (8580
dt)
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Completion
Date:
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March 1946
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Builder:
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WCSB Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1951; Sold for conversion to merchant ship;
1951: Marine Fortune, Marine Enterprises Ltd.,
London/Lyras Bros. Ltd., London;
1954: Saint Marcos, Hanseatische Reederei/Emil
Offen & Co., Hamburg, Germany
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Dodman Point
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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October 1945
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Builder:
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BDD Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1956: Became a depot ship;
1963 Scrapped at Spezia, Italy
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Duncansby Head
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Fleet
Role:
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Escort Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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August 1945
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Builder:
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BDD
North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1960:
HQ ship for reserve fleet at Rosyth, Scotland;
1962:
Recommissioned at Rosyth with Girdle Ness.
The two ships were designated as HMS Cochrane, the base at Rosyth.
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Dungeness
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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October
1945
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Builder:
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WCSB,
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1947:
Levuka, W.R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., Sydney, NSW;
1948:
Triadic, British Phosphate Commissioners, London
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Fife Ness
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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November 1945
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Builder:
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BDD/VDD
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1947:
Adastral, Royal Air Force depot ship;
1953:
Granhill, Goulandris Bros. Ltd., London;
1954:
Merlin, San Pedro Cia. Armadora, SA, Panama/Goulandris Bros. Ltd.,
London
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Flamborough Head
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Fleet
Role:
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Escort Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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April
1945
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Builder:
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BDD/VDD
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1951:
Transferred to Royal Canadian Navy and renamed Cape Breton;
1953:
Training ship for Artificers;
1958:
Converted to Escort Maintenance ship;
1959:
Commissioned as second Mobile Repair ship;
1999:
Sold to Artificial Reef Society for $20,000. Stern and main engine
preserved to be incorporated into the new North Vancouver Museum and
Archive location on the site of the old Burrard Dry Dockyard
where she was built.
20 October 2001: Hull scuttled in the Canadian Gulf Islands for use as a
dive site. (The
story and photographs of this event can be seen on Maureen Venzi's website
- 'Allied Merchantmen of World War Two' website. See my 'Links'
page.)
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Girdle Ness
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing
Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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September
1945
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Builder:
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WCSB,
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1956:
rebuilt as Guided Missiles Trials ship at Devonport.
1962:
Accommodation ship alongside Duncansby Head for HMS Cochrane.
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Hartland Point
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing
Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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July
1945
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Builder:
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BDD/VDD,
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1956:
Commenced conversion to Escort Maintenance ship;
1960:
Operational base ship at Hong Kong;
1965:
Reserve status at Portsmouth.
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Mull of Galloway
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Fleet
Role:
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Escort Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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May 1945
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Builder:
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NVSR
North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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Launched
as Kinnaird Head for Royal Navy; Built as Escort Maintenance ship.
1951:
Motor maintenance ship;
1954:
Inshore Minesweeping Flotilla HQ;
1960:
Joined HMS Sheffield to form new flagship group, Reserve Fleet;
1965:
Scrapped at Hamburg.
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Mull
of Kintyre
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Fleet
Role:
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Experimental
Base HQ Ship for target trials
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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October
1945
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Builder:
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NVSR,
North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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Transferred
unfinished to UK;
1946/9:
Completed as Experimental base HQ ship for target trials;
1950:
Armament Maintenance ship;
1955:
Repair and Accommodation ship;
1957:
Converted to Minesweeper Maintenance ship;
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Portland Bill
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Fleet
Role:
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Armament
Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory
(8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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October
1945
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Builder:
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BDD North
Vancouver
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History:
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Post
war converted into Merchant ship;
Zinnia,
Stag Line Ltd./Joseph Robinson & Sons, North Shields, UK;
1964:
Chrysopolis;
1965:
Scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan
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Rame Head
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Fleet
Role:
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Escort Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (8580 dt)
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Completion
Date:
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August 1945
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Builder:
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NVSR,
North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1964:
In operational reserve at Portsmouth
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Spurn Point
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Fleet
Role:
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Landing Craft Maintenance
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Type:
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Victory (7130 gt)
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Completion
Date:
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December
1945
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Builder:
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BDD/VDD,
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1947:
Lakemba, Pacific Shipowners Ltd., Suva, Fiji/W.R. Carpenter Ltd.,
Sydney, NSW
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Uncompleted Royal Navy Ships
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Mull of Oa
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Fleet
Role:
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Projected
Maintenance ship
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Type:
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Victory (7130 gt)
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Completion
Date:
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December
1946
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Builder:
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NVSY
North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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Original
projected name TREVOSE HEAD.
Work
suspended before completion. Sold
and converted to merchant ship.
1946:
Turan, Iran Nav. Co. Ltd. Tehran, Iran
1948:
Betty Ryan, Comp. Argentina de Pesca SA Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Rattray Head
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Fleet
Role:
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Construction
halted and completed as merchant ship
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Type:
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Victory
(7130 gt)
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Completion
Date:
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August
1945
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Builder:
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NVSR
North Vaancouver, BC
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History:
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1946:
Iran, Iran Nav. Co Ltd. Tehran
1948:
Mabel Ryan, Comp. Argentina. De Pesca SA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Orfordness
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Fleet
Role:
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Projected
Maintenance Ship, sold and completed as merchant ship
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Type:
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Victory
(7130 gt)
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Completion
Date:
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October
1946
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Builder:
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WCSB
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1947:
Rabaul, W.R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., Sydney, NSW
1947:
Dongola, Peninsula & Oriental S.N. Co. London
1961:
Apj Ashwini,
1965:
Scrapped at Bombay, India
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Selsey Bill
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Fleet
Role:
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Projected
Armament Maintenance Ship. Sold
unfinished.
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Type:
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Victory
(7130 gt)
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Completion
Date:
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November
1946
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Builder:
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BDD,
North Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1946:
Waitermata, Union Steamship Co., New Zealand
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Tarbat Ness
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Fleet
Role:
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Projected
Maintenance Ship. Sold before
completion.
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Type:
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Victory
(7130 gt)
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Completion
Date:
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May
1945
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Builder:
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WCSB
Vancouver, BC
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History:
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1947:
Lautoka, Pacific Shipowners Ltd., Suva, Fiji/W.R. Carpenter &
Son Ltd., Sydney, NSW
1947:
Devanha, Peninsula & Oriental S.N. Co., London
1961:
Fortune Canary
1964:
Wing An
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