HMS Athene

History
UK
Class and type:	Cameron-class steamship
Name:	HMS Athene
Builder:	Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Company, Greenock, Scotland
Yard number:	444
Launched:	1 October 1940
Out of service:	Returned to Clan Line, 1946
Fate:	Scrapped from 19 July 1963
General characteristics
Displacement:	10,700 tons
Length:	487.75 ft (148.67 m) (o.a.)
Beam:	63 ft (19 m)
Draught:	28.5 ft (8.7 m)
Propulsion:	2 × steam triple expansion engines; 2 × low pressure exhaust turbines; twin screw, 8,300 bhp
Speed:	17 knots (31 km/h)
Armament:	1 × 4 inch LA, 1 × 4 inch DP 2 × 2-pounder AA 12 × 20 mm AA
Aircraft carried:	up to 40 carried, single catapult

HMS Athene was a Royal Navy aircraft transport. She was a merchant conversion, requisitioned by the Navy during the Second World War and returned after its end. She is the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named after the Greek goddess Athene.

Career

She was originally built as the Cameron-class steamship Clan Brodie, for the Clan Line at the yards of the Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Company Greenock, Scotland. She was requisitioned by the Navy and was launched on 1 October 1940 as the aircraft transport HMS Athene.

Athene operated as a Seaplane Carrier in the South Atlantic over 1942/43. She was fitted with a single catapult.^[1]

She survived the war and was returned to Clan Line in 1946. She was reconverted for merchant service and served until 1963, when she was sold for scrap. She arrived in Hong Kong for breaking up on 19 July 1963.

See also

• HMS Engadine

Notes

1. Cocker, M. Aircraft-carrying ships of the Royal Navy. p. 126.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• HMS Athene at Clydebuilt.net
• The wartime services of the Cameron class