HMS Campania (D48) was an escort aircraft carrier

Escort aircraft carrier

The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the USN or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the British Royal Navy , the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and the...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 that saw service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. After the war, the ship was used as a floating exhibition hall for the 1951 Festival of Britain

Festival of Britain

The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...

 and as the command ship for the 1952 Operation Hurricane

Operation Hurricane

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon between the Montebello Islands, Western Australia....

, the test of the prototype British atomic bomb.

She was built at Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. When construction started in 1941 she was intended as a refrigerated cargo ship for transporting lamb and mutton from New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, but was requisitioned by the British Government over during construction and completed and launched as an escort carrier, entering service in early 1944.

The ship was of a similar, but not identical design to the other ships of the .

World War II

Campania operated escorting convoys and doing anti-submarine work in the Atlantic and Arctic

Arctic convoys of World War II

The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United Kingdom and North America to the northern ports of the Soviet Union—Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945...

 theatres. In December 1944 her Swordfish

Fairey Swordfish

The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War...

 aircraft sank the German submarine U-365 while the Campania was escorting the Arctic convoy Convoy RA-62.

The ship survived the war, and unlike other Royal Navy escort carriers, was not immediately scrapped or sold. She was briefly used as an aircraft transport before being decommissioned and placed in reserve in December 1945.

Festival of Britain

In 1951 she was the Festival of Britain

Festival of Britain

The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...

's exhibition ship, touring the country's ports with a civilian crew as the Festival Ship Campania to supplement the main exhibition in London and two thousand local events.

The Festival Office's resident designer, James Holland, considered that the vessel would "not convert easily into a showboat", but with the massive demand for shipping to help rebuild Europe after the war, he and his colleagues felt lucky to have any ship at all.

Repainted white, the ship was decorated with skeleton masts and bunting. Officially named the Sea Travelling Exhibition, the exhibits were intended to reflect the main London Exhibition. Like the Festival's Land Travelling Exhibition, they were divided into three sections, the Land of Britain, Discovery and The People at Home. Between 4 May 1951 and 6 October, the ship visited Southampton, Dundee, Newcastle, Hull, Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Birkenhead and Glasgow, staying at each port for 10-14 days.

Operation Hurricane

With the festival over, the ship was refitted in Birkenhead for a very different role, as the command ship for Operation Hurricane

Operation Hurricane

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon between the Montebello Islands, Western Australia....

, the test of the first British atomic bomb on the Monte Bello Islands off western Australia. The refit saw the exhibition replaced by workshops, laboratories, offices and cabins, plus a desalination plant since the Monte Bello Islands did not have any indigenous fresh water source to supply the 1500 personnel who would take part in the test.

Four other ships were directly involved in the test, the landing ships HMS Narvik, HMS Zeebrugge, HMS Tracker

HMS Tracker

Three vessels of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Tracker:* Tracker , an Attacker-class escort carrier built in the USA and completed in 1943. She saw extensive action in 1943 with the Western Approach Command covering Atlantic, Mediterranean and Russian convoys.* Tracker, a Landing Ship...

 and a frigate, HMS Plym

HMS Plym (K271)

HMS Plym was a River class frigate that served in the Royal Navy between 1943 and 1952.-Construction:Plym was built to the Royal Navy's specifications as a Group II River class frigate...

. Tracker was designated as the Health Ship and extensively equipped with decontamination facilities, whilst the weapon was to be detonated aboard Plym. The flotilla was under the overall command of Rear Admiral Arthur David Torlesse.

Heavily laden with crated equipment and deck cargo, including three Dragnonfly

Sikorsky H-5

The Sikorsky H-5, is a helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, formerly used by the United States Air Force, and its predecessor, the United States Army Air Forces, as well as the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard The Sikorsky H-5, (aka R-5, S-51, HO3S-1, or Horse) (R-5...

 helicopters and two Sea Otter

Supermarine Sea Otter

|-Survivors:No museum holds a complete aircraft. Australia's Museum of Flight has the nose section of JN200, a Sea Otter which served with the Royal Australian Navy.-See also:-References:...

 aircraft and deck cargo, the re-commissioned HMS Campania departed from Portsmouth for the islands on 2 June 1952. Eighty-five scientists were also onboard as passengers, around half directly involved in British nuclear programme and the remainder from other parts of the British civil service.

The vessel arrived at the Monte Bello Islands on 8 August after calling into Gibraltar, Cape Town, Mauritius and Fremantle and the next two months were spent preparing for the test, which took place on 3 October. Campania was not found to be particularly suitable as the main base for the test, partly because it was hot and cramped, and partly because there were insufficient boats for ferrying them between the ship and the shore and the eight pinnace

Pinnace (ship's boat)

As a ship's boat the pinnace is a light boat, propelled by sails or oars, formerly used as a "tender" for guiding merchant and war vessels. In modern parlance, pinnace has come to mean a boat associated with some kind of larger vessel, that doesn't fit under the launch or lifeboat definitions...

s intended to perform about a third of the work could not moor close to the ship at night because the water was too choppy. Most of the scientists and engineers soon moved to tented accommodation ashore.

The ship was decommissioned for the final time in December 1952 following her return to the United Kingdom, and sold and scrapped in Blyth

Blyth, Northumberland

Blyth is a town and civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth and is approximately 21 kilometres  northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne...

in 1955.