HMS Athene

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Career (UK)
Class and type:	Aircraft Transport
Name:	HMS Athene
Builder:	Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Company (Greenock, Scotland)
Launched:	1 October 1940
Out of service:	Returned to the Clan Line in 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:	Steam reciprocating with LP turbines 8,300 bhp
Speed:	17 knots
Armament:	1 x 4 inch LA, 1 x 4 inch DP 2 x 2 pounder AA 12 x 20 mm AA
Aircraft carried:	up to 40 carried, single catapult
Notes:	Yard number 444

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

Career

She was originally built as the Cameron class steamer 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.

She survived the war and was sold back to the Clan Line in 1946. They reconverted her for merchant service and used her until 1963, when they sold her for scrapping.

She arrived in Hong Kong for breaking up on 19 July 1963.

See also

• HMS Engadine

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. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475. 
• HMS Athene at Clydebuilt.net
• The wartime services of the Cameron class