| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Germany | |
| Name | SS Rabenfels |
| Owner | Hansa |
| Builder | Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend |
| Launched | 5 November 1903 |
| Completed | December 1903 |
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | SS Rabenfels |
| Acquired | August 1914 |
| Commissioned | 12 June 1915 |
| Decommissioned | Late 1917 |
| Renamed | Raven II, 5 August 1915 |
| Reclassified | Merchant collier, January 1918 |
| Fate | Transferred to Merchant Navy, January 1918 |
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | SS Rabenfels |
| Acquired | January 1918 |
| Renamed | Ravenrock, 1918 |
| Fate | Sold to British Dominion Steamship Co., 1923; resold to Karafuto KKK, 1923 |
 Japan | |
| Name | SS Ravenrock |
| Owner | Karafuto KKK |
| Acquired | 1923 |
| Renamed | Heiyei Maru No. 7 |
| Fate | Sold to Inuri KKK, 1935 |
| Japan | |
| Name | SS Heiyei Maru No. 7 |
| Owner | Inuri KKK |
| Acquired | 1935 |
| Renamed | Heiei Maru No. 7, 1938 |
| Fate | Sunk, 1941–45 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Seaplane carrier |
| Tonnage | 4,706 GRT |
| Length | 394 ft 5 in (120.2 m) |
| Beam | 51 ft 6 in (15.7 m) |
| Draught | 27 ft 6 in (8.4 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Armament | 1 × 76 mm (3.0 in) gun |
| Aircraft carried | 1–6 × seaplanes |
HMS Raven II was a seaplane carrier of the Royal Navy used during the First World War. Converted from the captured German freighter Rabenfels, the ship's aircraft conducted aerial reconnaissance, observation and bombing missions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea during 1915–17 even though the ship was not commissioned into the Royal Navy until mid-1915. She fruitlessly searched the Indian Ocean for the German commerce raider Wolf in mid-1917. Raven II was decommissioned in late 1917 and became a Merchant Navy collier for the last year of the war. She was sold off in 1923 and had a succession of owners and names until she was sunk during the Second World War while under Japanese ownership.