The Colony-class frigates were a series of 21 frigates constructed in the United States by Walsh-Kaiser of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

for transfer under Lend-Lease to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

in 1944. They were given the names of relatively minor

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

as names of large colonies had been used for the s. The ships were built as

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

patrol frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

s, a design that was an adaptation of the Royal Navy design built in UK, Canada and Australia, with modifications made mainly to use materials and parts more readily available in the United States. For example, American guns were used as the main surface armament in the ''Tacoma''- and Colony-class frigates instead of the British QF Mk XIX guns of the River-class. They were mass-produced to mercantile standards to enable their speedy construction in shipyards that did not normally build warships. They were built more quickly than British shipyards could build the Rivers, but the quicker build required more man-hours and sterling cost was about twice that of a River. Upon transfer to the Royal Navy, each ship underwent modifications to bring her in line with Royal Navy requirements. Uniquely among the Colony-class frigates, and indeed among all World War II frigates, HMS ''Caicos'' was fitted and used as an aircraft detection frigate, stationed in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

to detect

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

s targeted against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. The other 20 ships served on patrol and

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

escort duties during the latter part of World War II. The ships are mentioned in ''HM Frigate'' by

Nicholas Monsarrat Lieutenant Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat FRSL RNVR (22 March 19108 August 1979) was a British novelist known for his sea stories, particularly '' The Cruel Sea'' (1951) and ''Three Corvettes'' (1942–45), but perhaps known best i ...

, a very slim volume published under wartime

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

rules. Post-war, the Royal Navy returned one of the ships to the U.S. Navy in 1945 and the rest during 1946. None saw U.S. Navy service. Two of the ships were sold into mercantile service in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, surviving until 1956, and ''Caicos'' was sold to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 1947 and served in the Argentine Navy until 1969. The United States scrapped the rest between 1947 and 1949, as they were considered inferior to

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

s, which the U.S. Navy had in ample numbers, in every aspect except range.

List of ships

With date returned to the United States (unless otherwise stated). Almost all were scrapped by 1946 or 1947, unless stated. * : 31 May 1946; scrapped 1949 * : 2 May 1946 * : 31 May 1946 * : 11 June 1946 * : 11 June 1946 * : 12 December 1945; sold to Argentina as ''Santísima Trinidad'', later ''Comodoro Augusto Lasserre'', sold and scrapped 1971Page 7, ''Janes Fighting Ships 1963–64''
Page 9, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995'' * : 23 April 1946 * : 23 April 1946 * , (ex-HMS ''Gold Coast''): 18 May 1948; scrapped 1957 * : 11 June 1946 * : 15 April 1946 * : 13 May 1946; sold to Egypt and sank in

Gulf of Suez The Gulf of Suez ( ar, خليج السويس, khalīǧ as-suwais; formerly , ', "Sea of Calm") is a gulf at the northern end of the Red Sea, to the west of the Sinai Peninsula. Situated to the east of the Sinai Peninsula is the smaller Gulf of ...

1953 * , (ex-HMS ''Sierra Leone''): 22 May 1946 * : 11 June 1946 * : 22 May 1946 * : June 1946 * : 22 May 1946 * : 8 April 1946 * , (ex-HMS ''Hong Kong''): 13 May 1946; sold to Egypt and scuttled as a

blockship A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland Harbour in 1914 ...

in the Suez Canal, 1956 * : 22 May 1946 * : 31 May 1946

Gallery

File:HMS Anguilla 1944 IWM FL 669.jpg, File:HMS Antigua 1944 IWM FL 821.jpg, File:HMS Ascension.JPG, File:HMS Caicos 1945 IWM A 27993.jpg, File:HMS Dominica (K507) IWM A 25639.jpg, File:HMS Somaliland 1944 IWM A 25717.jpg, File:HMS Tortola 1944 IWM A 25716.jpg,

Notes

References

External links

U-boat.net

by Walsh-Kaiser Company {{WWII British ships Frigate classes Ship classes of the Royal Navy

List of ships

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

External links