MV ''Acavus'' was one of nine Anglo Saxon
Royal Dutch/Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
tankers converted to become a
Merchant Aircraft Carrier (MAC ship). The group is collectively called the ''Rapana'' Class.
''Acavus'' was built by
Workman, Clark and Company
Workman, Clark and Company was a shipbuilding company based in Belfast.
History
The business was established by Frank Workman and George Clark in Belfast in 1879 and incorporated Workman, Clark and Company Limited in 1880. By 1895 it was the UK ...
of
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
for the
Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
, launching on 24 November 1934,
and completing in 1935. As built, ''Acavus'' was , with a
beam of and a
draught of . She measured 8010
gross register tons and 4752
net register tons.
A single Sulzer
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
was fitted.
In 1942–1943, ''Acavus'' was converted by Silley Cox & Co. at
Falmouth to a MAC ship, entering service in October 1943.
As converted, she had an
overall length
The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of , with a beam of and a draught of .
Displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and Physics
* Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
was full load and standard. She had a speed of .
The ship had an armament of a single
4 inch (102 mm) QF Mk. IV gun, with an anti-aircraft armament of two
40 mm Bofors Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors:
*Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s
...
guns and six
Oerlikon 20 mm
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models empl ...
cannon.
As a MAC conversion of an oil tanker, she had no aircraft hangar, but could operated three
Fairey Swordfish
The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also us ...
aircraft from her steel flight deck, which was long and wide. She continued to carry normal cargoes, with capacity about 90% of that pre-conversion, although this was restricted to crude oil to minimise the potential fire hazard.
Only her aircrew and the necessary maintenance staff were naval personnel.
At the end of the war Acavus was reconverted to an oil tanker, and renamed ''Iacra'' in 1963. She was in service until 1963 when she was scrapped in Italy.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Acavus
Oil tankers
Acavus
''Acavus'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Acavidae.
They belongs to group of tree snails that inhabited the ancient continent of Gondwana over 150 million years ago.
These beauti ...
1934 ships