HMS Campania (D48)

HMS Campania
History
United Kingdom
NameCampania
BuilderHarland & Wolff
Yard number1091
Laid down12 August 1941
Launched17 June 1943
Completed7 March 1944
Commissioned9 February 1944
Decommissioned30 December 1945
Commissioned1952
DecommissionedDecember 1952
IdentificationPennant number: D48
FateScrapped 1955
General characteristics
Class & typeNairana-class escort carrier
Displacement
  • 13,000 tons standard,
  • 15,970 tons loaded
Length540 ft (160 m)
Beam70 ft (21 m)
Draught22.8 ft (6.9 m)
PropulsionTwo shafted diesel engines, 13,250 shp
Speed18 knots (33 km/h)
Range17,000 nautical miles (31,000 km) at 17 knots (31 km/h)
Complement639
Armament
Aircraft carried18

HMS Campania was an escort aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that saw service during the Second World War. After the war, the ship was used as a floating exhibition hall for the 1951 Festival of Britain and as the command ship for the 1952 Operation Hurricane, the test of the prototype British atomic bomb.

She was built at Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. When construction started in 1941 she was intended as a refrigerated cargo ship for transporting lamb and mutton from New Zealand, but was requisitioned by the British Government during construction and completed and launched as an escort carrier, entering service in early 1944.

The ship was of a similar, but not identical design to the other ships of the Nairana class.