page_title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)
section_title: Atlantic Charter meeting
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Prince of Wales (53) / Operational service / Atlantic Charter meeting
caption_attribution_description: Atlantic Conference August 1941: Churchill restrains 'Blackie' the cat, the mascot of HMS Prince of Wales, from joining the USS McDougal, an American destroyer, while the ship's company stand to attention during the playing of the National Anthem.
context_page_description: HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. In her brief but storied career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait against the German battleship Bismarck, escorting one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, and then attempting to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya when she was lost on 10 December 1941. In her final battle which was three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was sunk alongside the battlecruiser HMS Repulse by Japanese bombers when they became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck of Prince of Wales lies upside down in 223 feet of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea.
context_section_description: Following repairs at Rosyth, Prince of Wales transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for a secret conference with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 5 August Roosevelt boarded the cruiser USS Augusta from the presidential yacht Potomac. Augusta proceeded from Massachusetts to Placentia Bay and Argentia in Newfoundland with the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa and five destroyers, arriving on 7 August while the presidential yacht played a decoy role by continuing to cruise New England waters as if the President were still on board. On 9 August Churchill arrived in the bay aboard Prince of Wales, escorted by the destroyers HMS Ripley, HMCS Assiniboine and HMCS Restigouche. At Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Roosevelt transferred to the destroyer USS McDougal to meet Churchill on board Prince of Wales. The conference continued from 10 to 12 August aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta and, at the end of the conference, the Atlantic Charter was proclaimed. Following the declaration of the charter, Prince of Wales arrived back at Scapa Flow on 18 August.
caption: Winston Churchill restrains Blackie, the ship's cat of HMS Prince of Wales, from boarding USS McDougal during a 1941 ceremonial visit
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