HMS Warrior (R31)
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HMS Warrior near Gibraltar.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Warrior |
| Builder: | Harland and Wolff |
| Laid down: | 12 December 1942 |
| Launched: | 20 May 1944 |
| Commissioned: | 2 April 1945 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: R31 |
| Fate: | Transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy |
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Canada
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| Name: | HMCS Warrior |
| Commissioned: | 14 March 1946 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 March 1948 |
| Motto: | "Haul together" |
| Fate: | Returned to Royal Navy |
| Badge: | Azure, the head and shoulders of a Viking proper wearing the typical Viking helmet argent, wings or, coat of mail argent trimmed or |
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United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Warrior |
| Commissioned: | November 1948 |
| Decommissioned: | February 1958 |
| Fate: | Sold to Argentina in 1958 |
 Argentina
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| Name: | ARA Independencia |
| Commissioned: | 8 July 1959 |
| Decommissioned: | 1970 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: V-1 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in Argentina in 1971 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Colossus-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 18,300 tons (later 18,400 tons) |
| Length: | 695 ft (212 m) |
| Beam: | 80 ft (24 m) |
| Draught: | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Propulsion: | Four boiler, twin screw steam turbine. 40,000 hp (30 MW) |
| Speed: | 25 kn (46 km/h) |
| Range: | 12,000 nmi (22,000 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 1,075 to 1,300 |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 48 - F9F Panther and F9F Cougar, F4U Corsair, SNJ-5Cs Texan, Grumman S2F-1 (S-2A) Trackers, de Havilland Vampire |
HMS Warrior was a Colossus-class light aircraft carrier which served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1948 (as HMCS Warrior), the Royal Navy from 1948 to 1958, and the Argentine Navy from 1959 to 1969 as ARA Independencia.
Built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, she was originally to be called HMS Brave; the Royal Navy had originally intended to rush her into service for operations in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War, thus she was built without heaters for some onboard equipment since heat was unnecessary in tropical operations.
Acquisition
As the focus of future operations at sea during the Second World War shifted to the Pacific theatre, planning began in May 1944 that the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) would require a larger fleet both in numbers and in size of ships. In the effort to get bigger, the RCN returned the escort carriers currently on loan, Puncher and Nabob in exchange for the loan of two light fleet carriers. The acquisition of two ships, Warrior and Magnificent, was completed in January 1945 with the option to purchase them outright at a later date. Negotiations were completed in May, however the war ended before the ships were completed.
Construction and service
Warrior was launched on 20 May 1944 and completed on 24 January 1946. She was loaned to the RCN, commissioned as HMCS Warrior and placed under the command of Captain Frank Houghton. She entered Halifax harbour on 31 March 1946, a week after leaving Portsmouth. She was escorted by the destroyer HMCS Micmac and the minesweeper HMCS Middlesex. Initially, Warrior was equipped with Seafires of 803 Squadron and Fireflies of 825 Squadron. The RCN experienced problems with the unheated equipment during operations in cold North Atlantic waters off eastern Canada during 1947. The ship was transferred west to Esquimalt in November 1947. The RCN deemed her unfit for service and, rather than retrofit her with equipment heaters and with reduced defence spending, the RCN could not afford two aircraft carriers. Warrior was then returned to the Royal Navy in exchange for Magnificent in February 1948.
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Wikipedia