HMS Vindictive (1918)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Vindictive.

Vindictive as an aircraft carrier
History
United Kingdom
NameVindictive
OrderedApril 1916
BuilderHarland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number500
Laid down29 June 1916
Launched17 January 1918
Completed19 October 1918
Commissioned1 October 1918
RenamedJune 1918 from Cavendish
Reclassified
IdentificationPennant number: 31 (July 1918); 48 (September 1919);[1] 36 (1920); I36 (1938); D36 (1940)[2]
FateScrapped, 1946
General characteristics (as completed 1918)
Class and typeLaid down as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser
Displacement
Length605 ft (184.4 m) (o.a.)
Beam65 ft (19.8 m)
Draught19 ft 3 in (5.9 m) (mean)
Installed power
Propulsion4 × shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines
Speed30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range5,400 nmi (10,000 km; 6,200 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement648
Armament
Armour
Aircraft carried6–12

HMS Vindictive was a warship built during the First World War for the Royal Navy (RN). Originally designed as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser and laid down under the name Cavendish, she was converted into an aircraft carrier while still being built. Renamed in 1918, she was completed a few weeks before the end of the war and saw no active service with the Grand Fleet. The following year she participated in the British campaign in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks, during which her aircraft made numerous attacks against the naval base at Kronstadt. Vindictive returned home at the end of the year and was placed in reserve for several years before her flight decks were removed and she was reconverted back into a cruiser. The ship retained her aircraft hangar and conducted trials with an aircraft catapult before she was sent to the China Station in 1926. A year after her return in 1928, she was again placed in reserve.

Vindictive was demilitarized and converted into a training ship in 1936–1937. At the beginning of the Second World War she was converted into a repair ship. Her first role after the conversion was completed in early 1940, however, was to transport troops during the Norwegian Campaign. She was then sent to the South Atlantic to support British ships serving there and, in late 1942, to the Mediterranean to support the ships there. Vindictive returned home in 1944 and was damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Normandy after the Allies invaded France. She was reduced to reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1946.

  1. ^ Dittmar, F J; Colledge, J J (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 32.
  2. ^ Lenton, H T (1973). British Cruisers. London: Macdonald. p. 150.