HMS Queen (D19)

HMS Queen
History
United States
NameUSS St. Andrews
NamesakeSt. Andrews Bay in Florida
BuilderSeattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down12 March 1943
Launched2 August 1943
FateTransferred to Royal Navy
United Kingdom
NameHMS Queen
Commissioned7 December 1943
DecommissionedJuly 1947
IdentificationPennant number:D19
FateSold as merchant ship; scrapped 1972
General characteristics
Class and type
Displacement8,333 tons
Length496 ft (151 m)
Beam69 ft 6 in (21.18 m)
Draught23 ft 3 in (7.09 m)
PropulsionSteam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW)
Speed17 knots (31 km/h)
Complement646 officers and men
Armament
Aircraft carried18-24

The USS St. Andrews (CVE-49) (originally AVG-49, later ACV-49) was assigned to MC hull 260 on 23 August 1942, a ship to be built to modified C3-S-A1 plans. She was laid down on 12 March 1943 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation of Tacoma, Washington; redesignated CVE-49 on 15 July; and launched on 31 July; sponsored by Mrs. Robert W. Morse; transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease on 7 December; and commissioned the same day as HMS Queen (D19) in the Royal Navy.

HMS Queen served British and Allied escort forces in protecting the vital convoy supply effort across the North Atlantic in 1944, and in the Pacific campaigns in 1945. On 4 May 1945 aircraft of Queen's 853 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, took part in Operation Judgement, the last air-raid of the European war, at Kilbotn, Norway. After hostilities ceased, she was converted to a troop carrier and used to bring British forces back from the Far East, before being returned to the United States at Norfolk, Virginia, 31 October 1946.

On arrival, Queen was decommissioned by the Royal Navy and was taken over by the U.S. Navy. In excess of Navy needs, CVE-49 was slated, in December, for disposal; struck from the Navy Register in July 1947, sold to the N.V. Stoomv, Maats, Nederland Co., Amsterdam, Netherlands and pressed into merchant service as Roebiah on 29 July 1947 (renamed President Marcos in 1967 and Lucky One in 1972). She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1972.