USS Croatan (CVE-14)

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Career
Laid down:	5 September 1941
Launched:	4 April 1942
Commissioned (RN):	1 March 1943
Decommissioned:	28 January 1947
Fate:	merchant ship
General Characteristics
Displacement:	9,800 tons
Length:	495.7 ft
Beam:	69.5 ft
Extreme width:	111.5 ft
Draft:	26 ft
Speed:	17 knots
Complement:	890 officers and men
Armament:	2 x 5-inch gun

The USS Croatan (CVE-14) (originally AVG-14 then ACV-14) was transferred to the United Kingdom 27 February 1943 under lend-lease where she served as the HMS Fencer. As an anti-submarine warfare carrier, the Fencer escorted Atlantic, Russian and African convoys, even participating in a strike on the Tirpitz before being transferred to the Pacific. Following the war, she returned to the United States 21 December 1946, stricken for disposal on 28 January 1947 and sold into merchant service 30 December as Sydney.

The ship went through a series of renamings, first to Roma in 1967, then Galaxy Queen in 1970, Lady Dina in 1972 and finally Caribia in 1973 before being scrapped in Spezia in September 1975.

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