A History of HMS CAMPANIA

HMS cAMPANIA

Ordered by the Shaw Savill Line in 1940, one of a pair of passenger cargo vessels of 12.000 tons ordered by the company form Harland & Wolff; of the vessels, one was launched as the SS Waiwera (III) taking the name of the second Waiwera which was sunk in 1942 – there is no record of a name being allocated to the vessel that became HMS Campania.

Her keel was laid on August 12th 1941 at Harland & Wolff's shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the hull was requisitioned by the Admiralty 27th July 1942 as part of a programme to convert five merchant vessels into escort carriers in British dockyards (Activity, Campania, Nairana, Pretoria castle and Vindex). She launched on June 17th 1943 and was commissioned into Royal Naval service on February 9th 1944 as HMS CAMPANIA (D48), Captain K.A. Short RN in command.

Campania was the last of the five merchant conversions to be completed and she benefited from the extra time in the dockyard by becoming the first British carrier to be fitted an Action Information Organization (AIO) suite and the more capable Type 277 radar array.

Served as an escort on Russia convoys and as an ASW carrier in the Arctic. Deployed to the Baltic after the German surrender; operated as a transport post-war.

Decommissioned to reserve 30 December 1945. Possible reactivation as a civilian-manned ferry carrier cancelled 1947. Served as an exhibition ship in 1951, with the hangar converted to an exhibition area; It docked at 10 ports around the UK from Glasgow to Southampton and was open to the public from 4th May to 6th October 1951. Briefly in reserve following the exhibition, then reactivated as transport and headquarters ship for atom bomb tests.

Decommissioned to reserve 12/1952. Sold 10/1955 and scrapped at Blyth starting 11 November 1955

HMS Campania after her conversion to a floating exhibition for the Festival of Britain

Content revised: July 2008