Ocean boarding vessel explained

Ocean boarding vessels (OBVs) were merchant ships taken over by the Royal Navy during the Second World War for the purpose of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels.

Ships

Ship	Date launched/ completed	Date requisitioned/ commissioned	History
	1926		Converted to "Catapult Armed Ship". Used for convoy escort
	June 1915	26 September 1940	Torpedoed and sunk 6 May 1941^[1]
HMS Cavina	August 1940	July 1942	Converted from a banana boat. Returned to Elders & Fyffes^[2]
			Rescued survivors of October 1942^[3] Rescued survivors of 14 March 1943.^[4]
	1935	August 1940	Sunk 4 February 1941 after torpedo attack previous day^[5]
HMS Empire Audacity	29 March 1939	11 November 1940	Former German ship Hannover captured 7/8 March 1940 and put into British service. Commissioned as Ocean boarding vessel in November 1940 but sent for conversion to escort aircraft carrier in January 1941.
	28 September 1925	August 1940	The cross channel steamer was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a Barrage Balloon Vessel, converted to Ocean Boarding Vessel in 1943. She was sunk off Normandy by a Neger manned torpedo 18 August 1944.^[6]
	17 April 1931	21 January 1941	Former Hilary; restored as a merchantman 15 April 1942; recommissioned as an infantry landing and headquarters ship 1943; returned to civilian service after the war in 1945; scrapped 1959.
	1925	11 August 1940	Bombed and sunk on 7 September 1940. Salvaged and converted to cargo ship Empire Explorer, never saw service as an ocean boarding vessel. Torpedoed and sunk in July 1942.
	1937	11 August 1940	Bombed and sunk on 7 September 1940. Salvaged and converted to cargo ship Empire Chivalry, never saw service as an ocean boarding vessel. Sold postwar and renamed Planter. Scrapped 1958.
	1929		Requisitioned by Admiralty in 1940. Sunk by Italian submarine in N Atlantic, 15 July 1941.
	1938	1941	French ship Charles Plumier in 1938; seized by Royal Navy; returned to France 1945; sold to a Greek company and renamed Pleias 1964; scrapped 1968
^[7]	1937		Abandoned after being bombed, North Atlantic, 19 July 1941
HMS	1920	1940	Sailed with Atlantic convoy OB 288. Sunk 24 February 1941, no survivors
			Participated in locating German supply ships after Bismarck had been sunk
	1932		Formerly Erin. Converted to Fighter catapult ship 1940.
	1922		Converted to Fighter catapult ship in 1940. Sank after attacked by German aircraft 1941
^[8]	1930	13 September 1940	Bombed off Cape Cornwall 27 May 1941; repaired and returned to merchant use November 1941; sunk 29 September 1942^[9]

See also

• Armed boarding steamer – British vessels of similar purpose in First World War
• Hired armed vessels – British vessels that performed convoy escort duties, anti-privateer patrols, and ran errands during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, and earlier.

References

• Cocker, M Aircraft-carrying ships of the Royal Navy, The History Press 2008
• Colledge . J. J. . Hague . A. . O'Donoghue . K. . Osborne . Richard . Ocean Boarding Vessels, Part 1 . Warships: Marine News Supplement . August 2021 . 75 . 8 . 420–424 . 0966-6958. amp.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Helgason . Guðmundur . HMS Camito (F 77) . uboat.net . 1995–2010 . 30 January 2010.
2. Web site: Cavina . Scottish Built Ships . Caledonian Maritime Research Trust . 26 January 2021.
3. Web site: Helgason . Guðmundur . Inversuir . uboat.net . 1995–2010 . 30 January 2010.
4. Web site: Moraes . Ozires . HMS Corinthian . sixtant.net . 2011 . 4 January 2015.
5. Web site: Helgason . Guðmundur . HMS Crispin . uboat.net . 1995–2010 . 30 January 2010.
6. Web site: Barrage Balloon Vessels . bbrclub.org . 10 August 2014.
7. Web site: Mason . Geoff . Royal Navy Vessels Lost at Sea, Atlantic & Arctic 1939-45 . 16 July 2010.
8. Web site: Stephenson-Knight . Marilyn . World War II - Page, C. P. . The Dover War Memorial Project . October 2006 . 30 January 2010.
9. Web site: Helgason . Guðmundur . Registan . uboat.net . 1995–2010 . 30 January 2010.