HMS Royalist (89)

Royalist anchored at Greenock, in Scotland, in September 1943
History
United Kingdom
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 from 1956 to 1966
Reclassified:	In reserve from 1946 to 1956
Identification:	Pennant number: 89
Fate:	Scrapped, Sold to Nissho Co, Japan, in November 1967. Left Auckland under tow to Osaka on 31 December 1967
History
New Zealand
Name:	HMNZS Royalist
Commissioned:	1956
Decommissioned:	1966
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)
Installed power:	62,000 shp (46 MW)
Propulsion:	Parsons geared turbines Four shafts Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers
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: 8 × QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) dual guns, 6 × 20 mm dual AA guns, 3 × 2-pounder (40-mm) pom-poms quad guns, 2 × 21-inch (530 mm) triple torpedo tubes
Armor:	Original configuration: Belt: 3 inch, Deck: 1 inch, Magazines: 2 inch, Bulkheads: 1 inch.

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 anti-aircraft armament. She was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock with the keel being laid down on 21 March 1940. She was launched on 30 May 1942, and commissioned 10 September 1943. Her motto was "Surtout Loyal", which translates to 'Loyal above all'.

Following her commissioning, Royalist spent several months working up, during which time she underwent repairs for trial defects and for alterations and additions. Amongst these were modifications for service as a carrier flagship. In March 1944 Royalist joined the Home Fleet and served for a short period in the Arctic theatre. In this capacity she took part in Operation Tungsten, the carrier raid 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 failed to join the Battle of the Malacca Strait where five Royal Navy destroyers successfully intercepted the Japanese cruiser Haguro and the destroyer Kamikaze evacuating troops from Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. For the remainder of the war she covered the carrier raids against targets in the East Indies and Sumatra.