MV Empire MacCallum was a grain ship converted to a merchant aircraft carrier or MAC ship.
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Empire MacCallum |
| Owner | Ministry of War Transport |
| Operator | Hain Steam Ship Co Ltd |
| Builder | Lithgows, Glasgow, Scotland |
| Launched | 12 October 1943 |
| Renamed |
|
| Fate | Scrapped Osaka 1960 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 8,250 GRT |
| Length | 425 ft (130 m) (pp) 444 ft 6 in (135.48 m) (oa) |
| Beam | 57 ft 9 in (17.60 m) |
| Depth | 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h) |
| Complement | 107 |
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | Four Fairey Swordfish |
History
editMV Empire MacCallum was built at Lithgows shipyard, Glasgow, Scotland, under order from the Ministry of War Transport. As a MAC ship, only her air crew and the necessary maintenance staff were naval personnel,[1] She was operated by Hain Steam Ship Co Ltd of St Ives.[2] On 7 July 1944, a Fairey Swordfish aircraft mistakenly sank the Free French submarine Perle in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland.[3] Among the aircraft that served on Empire MacCallum was Fairey Swordfish Mk II LS326 where it became part of 'K' flight. The aircraft had previously been on Rapana. In November 2010, it was airworthy with the Royal Navy Historic Flight.[4]
After the war, the ship was converted to a grain carrier, and eventually scrapped at Osaka in 1960.[2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ H.T. Lenton; J. J. Colledge (1973). Warships of World War II. Ian Allan. p. 296. ISBN 0-7110-0403-X.
- ^ a b "List and history of the Empire ships - M". Mariners. Retrieved 18 March 2007.
- ^ "Q 184 La Perle 2". SM Français (in French). Archived from the original on 10 August 2014.[unreliable source?]
- Polmar, Norman (2006). Aircraft Carriers. Vol. 1, 1909-1945 : a history of carrier aviation and its influence on world events (2nd ed.). Potomac Books. p. 276. ISBN 9781574886634.
- Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard. "Seekrieg 1944, Juli". Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart (in German). Retrieved 5 September 2015. - ^ Howard, Lee (December 2010). "Return of the Stringbag". Aeroplane. Kelsey Publishing. pp. 47–48, 53–55.
External links
edit- "MV Empire MacCallum". Fleet Air Arm Archive. Archived from the original on 6 July 2009.