HMS Nabob – The Ship That Came Back From the Dead - Twice
As His Majesty’s Ship Nabob this small aircraft carrier—Canada’s ‘first’ flattop—has gone down in naval history for surviving a torpedo in August 1944 during an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz.
To the amazement of many, and thanks to the heroism of her crew, she made it safely back to port.
Although a British aircraft carrier, HMS Nabob was mostly manned by Canadians. —www.Pinterest.com
But she almost didn’t make it overseas to do battle—while conducting sea trials in the Strait of Georgia, she grounded at near full speed. Only after several attempts over a period of days was she finally freed and, with feathers ruffled, able to carry on her way.
Her service with the Royal Navy would be even more dramatic.
Although she’d survive the torpedo, Nabob’s naval career was over. At a time when all wartime shipyards were working at full capacity, the damage was deemed to be too extensive to repair and she was written off as scrap.
As it turned out, however, what should have been—for a second time—the end of HMS Nabob was only the beginning of a new career and 30 more years on the high seas.
* * * * *
When her keel was laid down in October 1942 as the 36th hull in the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Co.’s wartime contract, Hull Number 252 as she was designated by the Maritime Commission, was intended to be anything but an aircraft carrier.
Rather, she was to be a C2-S-A1 type freighter, one of 173 built between 1940 and 1945. These were “all-purpose cargo ships with five holds... The first C2's were 459 feet long, 63 feet broad, 40 feet depth, 25 foot draft. Speed 15.5 knots. Later ships varied in size.”
All that changed when the hull was acquired by the US Navy to be completed as USS Edisto, one of 45 Bogue-class/Ruler-class escort carriers intended for both the US and the British navies through the famous Lend-Lease Program.
By the time of her launch, it was confirmed that, upon completion, CVE-41 would be transferred to the British Admiralty with Cdr. L.R. Romer, RN, as her commanding officer. By Sept. 7, 1943, she’d been outfitted and was ready for sea trials. A week earlier, she’d been formally transferred to the RN at Tacoma as HMS Nabob, pennant number D77.
September 10th, with a reduced crew, Cdr. Romer cleared Tacoma bound for Vancouver to join a queue of 18 other escort carriers which were to be modified to meet British Admiralty standards by Burrard Dry Dock Ltd., North Vancouver. There, too, she’d receive a full crew and begin final work-ups.
But, again, there was a change of plans.
HMS Nabob, while remaining a British vessel, was to become a training ship for a Royal Canadian Navy experiment with aircraft carriers. On Oct. 15, Cdr. Romer, RN, was out and Capt. Horatio Nelson Lay, OBE, RCN, was in. According to the Royal Navy Research Archives website, Nabob’s “ship's company, excluding the Air Department and squadrons, was provided by the Royal Canadian Navy.
“Out of her crew of 750 men, 450 were from Canada. NABOB was still a British naval vessel however; the terms of the lend-lease agreement under which she was supplied prohibited her transfer to the Canadian government.”
But she, and her sister American-built carriers, still needed extensive alterations and modification by Burrard Drydock to make them conform to RN standards and to be outfitted as Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) carriers. Nabob had to take her turn in line behind HM Ships Ameer, Atheling, Begum, Empress and Shah.
Some of these modifications—no fewer than 150, large and small, in total—were quite involved. Among other things, the blades to her Low Pressure turbine had to be sent to their makers, the Allis Chalmers Co. in Milwaukee. Before that work could even begin, Nabob had to wait for a berth at Lapointe Pier which she finally moved into on November 1st.
The slow pace of conversion of the new carriers wasn’t the result of poor management on the part of the shipyard or naval incompetence, it should be noted, but an unavoidable frustration of the shipyard having to expand and to modify its facilities to do the task at the height of the war.
Even when eight berths were finally available, there was only power for four of them, so the first five ships in line took considerably longer than the anticipated 45 days each. In fact, HMS Begum took 114 days, HMS Empress 99, and two others 89 days each. “All these delays,” the RN Archives tells us, “meant that NABOB could not enter the yard until a berth was freed up...
“The work totalled 150 separate modifications and included lengthening of the flight deck, fitting redesigned flying controls and fighter direction layout, modifications to hangar, accommodation and store rooms, installing extra safety measures including major changes to the aviation fuel stowage and oiling at sea arrangements, modifying gunnery and other internal communications, adding extra W/T and R/T sets, and improved darken ship arrangements.
“Electrical work was sub-contracted and completed by Hume & Rumble [at one time the biggest electrical contractor in western Canada—Ed.]
Finally, on Nov. 24, Nabob was moved to No. 4 berth for the fitting of Asdic equipment and additional sea valves, this work being completed four days before Christmas although her shipped-out rotor blades didn’t arrive until the 27th. Thus it was a momentous day in January that, after 51 days of conversion and modification, HMS Nabob moved into the stream off Lapointe Pier for the final touches which included 130 tons of pig iron ballast.
January 20 she sailed for the Bremerton Navy Yard, Washington, to load ammunition. This done, four days later, she sailed for Esquimalt to begin steaming, gunnery, radar and other trials.
She almost didn’t get there.
January 25, while proceeding through the Strait of Georgia “at near top speed”—17 knots—in conjunction with RCAF aircraft from Sea Island, she ran onto an uncharted sand bar and stuck fast.
Sister carrier Ranee was called in to stand by while towlines were attached to the stranded Nabob, There followed two attempts to pull her free, first at high tide in mid-morning with Ranee secured astern, the Battle-class HMCS Armentieres on the starboard and HMCS Haro on the port side.
HMCS Armentieres joined in the salvage attempt. —Wikipedia/RCN photo
Nabob remained hard aground.
Early evening, with another high tide, they tried again after the carrier’s crew had lightened ship by pumping out 300 tons of oil and 700 tons of salt water from the fuel tanks. Again, the Ranee, Armentieres and Haro strained at their lines while Nabob ran her engines at full astern and pulled on her bow anchor.
No go.
At this point, with the impending arrival of the salvage tugs Wando and Discover, the Ranee returned to Vancouver. It took until 10 o’clock on the morning of the 28th for the combined flotilla of tugs and naval craft to pull Nabob free. She then proceeded, presumably under her own power, to dry dock in Vancouver where an inspection disclosed little in the way of serious damage.
It had been a close call.
Back to business, she loaded ammunition, pyrotechnics and bombs at Port Townsend, WA and conducted live-firing exercises in the Strait of Juan de Fuca while en route to Esquimalt where she loaded more stores and victuals. Not until February 5 did she sail for San Francisco, United Kingdom bound.
February 11, she embarked aircrew, maintenance personnel and 12 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers of 852 Squadron which were waiting for her.
Many a time as a kid I got to see an Avenger in the skies over Victoria. —Wikipedia
After some small repairs, perhaps the result of her grounding, and radar calibration runs, HMS Nabob at last had her full crew complement: 504 RCN, 327 RN and nine RNZN personnel.
The term “breaking-in” applies literally to this phase of her career, when she suffered two on-deck crashes; fortunately, neither fatalities nor injuries are noted in the records.
After completing her workups which included firing her anti-aircraft guns she cleared San Diego to meet with sister carrier, HMS Empress. From San Francisco, they were off to Norfolk, VA. Such, at least, was the plan but Empress stripped a turbine and had to put about; Nabob went on to her next port, Balboa, alone.
She and Canadian frigate HMCS New Waterford transited the Panama Canal together and arrived at Norfolk, March 2nd, after having had her first real flying exercise en route while checking out a reported U-boat sighting. One of the four Avengers she launched had to land at Guantanamo, Cuba after its radar and radio failed and three more aircraft were damaged in deck crashes with one injury. With worsening weather, one Avenger, it seems, was jettisoned while approaching Norfolk.
Besides these incidents, all was not well on board the Nabob.
Her mix of Canadian and British crewmen, some of whom were Merchant (civilian) seamen (one of only two such ships in the RN) meant differences in pay scales and food rations. The Canadians’ slight perk in the way of a marriage allowance created hard feelings among the other nationalities to the point of provoking a near mutiny.
Dissidents first downed tools followed by, upon return to port, numerous desertions. Capt, Lay, a nephew of Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, appears to have had some political skills, too. He flew to Ottawa to address the Naval Board personally and convinced them to make pay and food allowances equal for all aboard the Nabob (the difference in cost to be borne by the RCN).
In the meantime, Nabob had had her propeller replaced and embarked P-51 Mustang aircraft. March 23rd, she cleared New York, joined a fast troop convoy bound for Greenock then detached for Liverpool to unload the Mustangs before continuing on to the Clyde.
Then, another shipyard, more repairs, modifications and installations until well into June. Only then did she begin preparing for active duty with 16 aircraft. This period saw six more landing accidents (landing an aircraft on a moving ship’s deck is no easy trick and some of the accidents involved faulty equipment), while learning anti-shipping and mine laying operations to be conducted off the Norwegian coast.
To date the mishaps had resulted in damaged aircraft. But, July 29th claimed two lives: “On returning from a patrol in bad weather [S/Lt. Cash’s] Avenger was given an early wave-off on approaching the ship; the aircraft passed up the starboard side of the ship at about 400ft and crashed into the sea ahead of the ship.
“The two Depth Charges on-board exploded. Sub-Lt. Cash was rescued but seriously injured by the Destroyer NEWMARKET, the other two crew members, Sub-Lt C. D. Wheeler, RNVR, and Petty Officer Airman B. K. Blissett were both killed.”
The next day, a trip wire failed while a pilot was making “a text book landing,” and a Wildfire fighter had to be written off.
All this before HMS Nabob came within range of the enemy.
But war for the new carrier was close now, she being assigned early in August to join a mixed force of carriers, cruisers and destroyers in Operation Offspring, the laying of mines off German-occupied Norway and an attack on an airfield at Gossen. This time she served with two Canadian destroyers, Algonquin and Sioux.
At the loss of two aircraft and one crew, the force successfully sowed mines, destroyed or damaged seven enemy fighters and heavily damaged the airfield.
The Tirpitz was the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy. She was finally sunk after numerous attempts during Operation Catechism, Nov. 12, 1944. —Wikipedia
Then followed Operation Goodwood, August 21-28, a three-stage series of strikes involving a British battleship, three fleet carriers, two cruisers, two CVE’s (Nabob and Trumpeter) and 14 destroyers against the German battleship Tirpitz. No fewer than 247 sorties by 84 Barracudas, Hellcats and Corsairs were launched, Nabob and Trumpeter providing ASW cover for the task force and sowing aerial mines.
Previous strikes against the Tirpitz having failed, Admiral McGrigor ordered the Avengers to drop their time-delayed 1,000-pound mines near the battleship and at the entrance to Kaafjord as the others attacked the battleship. But, for all of the airmen’s heroism, because of bad weather and a smoke screen thrown up by the defenders, they failed to hit the target even once.
As Nabob prepared to fuel three destroyers off North Cape in the Barents Sea, she was struck by an acoustic torpedo on her starboard side, with 20 men unaccounted for. The sea began to pour in “at an alarming rate” from a 32-square-foot hold aft of the engine room and below the waterline.
Down by the stern, HMS Nabob begins her 1100-mile crawl back to base. —Wikipedia
Within minutes she was listing heavily, down 15 feet by the stern—and virtually alone. When a second torpedo struck the cruiser HMS Bickerton, killing 38, the heavier ships of the force immediately dispersed, taking the screening destroyers with them.
“Having received damage reports and seeing the 7 degree list and significant increase in her draught at the stern, Captain Lay gave the order to prepare to abandon ship, [and] life boats and Carley floats were made ready. The Frigate KEMPTHORNE came alongside and took off 210 men, 10 of [whom] were injured, by boat. Many of those taken off were squadron personnel [as] it was believed that NABOB was now incapable of flight operations.”
Both wounded ships were given the ultimatum: sink or swim.
Bickerton, which had lost her propellers, was scuttled by two torpedoes from HMS Vigilant. But Capt. Lay wasn’t giving up. With flooding under control and power partially restored, the engine room crew worked to rebuild steam pressure and, within hours of being hit, Nabob was again underway at an agonizing three, then five, knots.
Even this tortoise-pace presented the danger of aggravating flooding and ‘Prepare to Abandon Ship’ remained the standing order—despite her lifeboats and life rafts, which had been lowered in the initial excitement, having drifted off.
Meaning, as the official record succinctly puts it, “This left individual life jackets as the only life-saving equipment still on board.”
Incredibly, with the U-boat threat still present, Nabob was able to launch two Avengers armed with depth charges! It’s thought this deterred a further attack and after four hours the pilots returned to the ship in reduced visibility. The first landed safely but the second crash landed onto the deck, damaging a parked Avenger and discharging its guns.
Worse, its depth charges broke free and began rolling across the deck, being stopped just in time. If they’d gone over the side and detonated, they’d have blown out Nabob’s bottom!
She then steered for home after 200 more “non-essential” crew members were removed by HMCS Algonquin. What followed was a race against worsening weather and an increasing list. She was down by 23 forward and 25 feet aft. Damage control parties worked ceaselessly to jettison anything of weight that was expendable, including ammunition and some of her five-inch guns.
“The portable pumps were run periodically to counter leakage from the secured and shored up areas and this trim was maintained for the remainder of her passage back to Scapa [Flow]. General messing facilities had been destroyed by the explosion, provision and store rooms were flooded but provisions etc., were sourced from emergency stocks located throughout the ship and hot meals were prepared in the officer’s galley...”
Upon her arrival at Scapa Flow on the morning of the 27th, the badly damaged Nabob had steamed 1100 miles “after being nearly mortally wounded, much of this through bad weather and rough seas”.
HMS Nabob never sailed again as an aircraft carrier. Because of the extent of her injuries, and with all shipyards working at full capacity, she was paid off on Sept. 30, 1944. Allocated to nominal reserve and partially cannibalized for her sister ships, she was returned to US Navy custody. In March 1946, she was written off for disposal and, a year later, sold for scrapping.
But life was not over for the Nabob; in one of those freakish ironies of history, she was rebuilt—by German owners in a German shipyard—from which she emerged, in June 1952, as the cargo freighter MV Nabob. In this role she also served as a merchant service cadet training ship until sold to a Panamanian company in 1967.
As a cargo liner, Nabob didn’t look anything like an aircraft carrier. —Wikipedia
As MV Nabob she returned several times to British Columbia waters, calling at Vancouver. Renamed MV Glory, she was scrapped in Taiwan in 1977. This time there was no reprieve for the good ship Nabob which had escaped disaster not once but twice in her remarkable career.
Canada’s post Second World War (1948-1957) ‘flattop’ HMCS Magnificent.
Postscript: Ten of HMS Nabob’s sister ships of the Bogue-class were kept in service by the US Navy after reclassification for helicopter and aircraft transport operations.