USS Carnegie - HMS Empress (D42) - General characteristics

General characteristics

Name: USS Carnegie Laid down: 9 September 1942 Launched: 30 December 1942 Fate: Transferred to Royal Navy Career (UK) Name: HMS Empress Commissioned: 12 August 1943 Decommissioned: 28 March 1946 Fate: Sold for scrap 1946	Class and type: Bogue class escort carrier Displacement: 7,800 tons Length: 495 ft 7 in (151.05 m) Beam: 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) Draught: 26 ft (7.9 m) Propulsion: Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW) Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h) Complement: 890 officers and men Armament: 2 × 5 in (127 mm) guns, 8 x twin 40 mm Bofors, 35 x single 20 mm Oerlikon Aircraft carried: 28

The USS Carnegie (CVE-38) (previously AVG-38 then later ACV-38) was an escort aircraft carrier built in 1942-43 for transfer to the United Kingdom. She was reclassified ACV-38 on 20 August 1942, and CVE-38 on 15 July 1943. She was commissioned on 9 August 1943 for a period of three days prior to being turned over to the United Kingdom, under whom she served as HMS Empress (D42).

Design and description

These ships were all larger and had a greater aircraft capacity than all the preceding American built escort carriers. They were also all laid down as escort carriers and not converted merchant ships.^[1] All the ships had a complement of 646 men and an overall length of 492 feet 3 inches (150.0 m), a beam of 69 feet 6 inches (21.2 m) and a draught of 25 ft 6 in (7.8 m).^[1] Propulsion was provided a steam turbine, two boilers connected to one shaft giving 9,350 brake horsepower (SHP), which could propel the ship at 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph).^[2]

Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft lifts 43 feet (13.1 m) by 34 feet (10.4 m), one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires.^[1] Aircraft could be housed in the 260 feet (79.2 m) by 62 feet (18.9 m) hangar below the flight deck.^[1] Armament comprised: two 4 inch Dual Purpose guns in single mounts, sixteen 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts and twenty 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons in single mounts.^[1] They had a maximum aircraft capacity of twenty-four aircraft which could be a mixture of Grumman Martlet, Vought F4U Corsair or Hawker Sea Hurricane fighter aircraft and Fairey Swordfish or Grumman Avenger anti-submarine aircraft.^[1]

Service history

During World War II, she served in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In September 1945, Empress was involved in Operation Tiderace, the reoccupation of Singapore from the Japanese. On 28 January 1946, she was restored to United States custody, was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 March 1946 and was sold for scrap 21 June 1946.