HMS Vindictive (1918)

Vindictive as an aircraft carrier
History
United Kingdom
Name	Vindictive
Ordered	April 1916
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number	500
Laid down	29 June 1916
Launched	17 January 1918
Completed	19 October 1918
Commissioned	1 October 1918
Renamed	June 1918 from Cavendish
Reclassified	Aircraft Carrier, then returned to cruiser, 1924. Training ship in 1937 Repair ship, 1939 Destroyer depot ship, 1944
Identification	Pennant number: 31 (July 1918); 48 (September 1919);[1] 36 (1920); I36 (1938); D36 (1940)[2]
Fate	Scrapped, 1946
General characteristics (as completed 1918)
Class and type	Laid down as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser
Displacement	9,394 long tons (9,545 t) (light) 12,400 long tons (12,599 t) (deep load)
Length	605 ft (184.4 m) (o.a.)
Beam	65 ft (19.8 m)
Draught	19 ft 3 in (5.9 m) (mean)
Installed power	12 × Yarrow boilers 60,000 shp (45,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines
Speed	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range	5,400 nmi (10,000 km; 6,200 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	648
Armament	4 × single 7.5 in (190 mm) guns 4 × single 3 in (76 mm) guns 4 × single 3 in AA guns 6 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Waterline belt: 1.5–4 in (38–102 mm) Deck: 1–1.5 in (25–38 mm) Conning tower: 3 in (76 mm)
Aircraft carried	6–12

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.