Laid down 8 November 1942 Decommissioned 1960 Draft 5.64 m Launched 8 July 1944 | Commissioned 8 August 1945 Out of service In reserve, 1957 Construction started 8 November 1942 Length 192 m Beam 24 m | |
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Fate Scrapped in Faslane, Scotland 1962 Class and type Colossus-class aircraft carrier Builder Alexander Stephen and Sons | ||
HMS Ocean was a Royal Navy Colossus-class light fleet aircraft carrier of 13,190 tons built in Glasgow by Alexander Stephen and Sons. Her keel was laid in November 1942, and she was commissioned on 30 June 1945.
In March 1944, a proposal was made by the Australian Government to purchase a light fleet carrier, specifically Ocean. The decision was rejected in early June 1945, and the carrier entered Royal Navy service.
On 4 December 1945, a Sea Vampire flown by Eric "Winkle" Brown made the first ever carrier landing of a purely jet-powered aircraft onto Ocean (although earlier that year a composite jet and piston engined Ryan FR-1 Fireball had made a carrier landing under jet power after its radial engine failed.) The last Fairey Swordfish to make an official flight from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier did so earlier in October 1945 from the deck of Ocean. When British forces withdrew from Palestine in 1948, Ocean supported the withdrawal.
Ocean twice deployed to Korea, firstly from May to October 1952 and then from May to November 1953. In August 1952 a formation of Hawker Sea Fury aircraft from the carrier engaged North Korean MiG-15 jets in air combat, shooting one down.
In August 1954 she joined the Home Fleet's Training Squadron but saw an active role in the Suez crisis. In the first ever large-scale helicopter borne assault, Westland Whirlwind and Bristol Sycamore helicopters from Ocean and HMS Theseus landed 425 men of 45 Commando and 23 tons of stores into Port Said in 90 minutes. After Suez, the ship did not see much more active service. In September 1957, the Russians protested when HMS Maidstone accompanied the Ocean on a visit to Helsinki. She went into Extended Reserve in 1958 and was scrapped in 1962 at Faslane.
In his book on the Hungarian Revolution, Peter Fryer briefly refers to the "arrest of twelve British seamen in the aircraft carrier Ocean, following unlawful meetings" in October 1956.
