HMS Queen (D19)
The USS "St. Andrews" (CVE-49) (originally AVG-49, later ACV-49) was assigned to MC hull 260 on 23 August 1942, a ship to be built to modified C3-S-A1 plans. She was laid down on 12 March 1943 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation of Tacoma, Washington; redesignated CVE-49 on 15 July; and launched on 31 July; sponsored by Mrs. Robert W. Morse; transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease on 7 December; and commissioned the same day as HMS "Queen" (D19) in the Royal Navy. HMS "Queen" served British and Allied escort forces in protecting  the vital convoy supply effort across the North Atlantic in 1944, and in the Pacific campaigns in 1945. On 4 May 1945 aircraft of "Queen"s 853 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, took part in Operation Judgement, the last air-raid of the European war, at Kilbotn, Norway. After hostilities ceased, she was converted to a troop carrier and used to bring British forces back from the Far East, before being returned to the United States at Norfolk, Virginia, 31 October 1946. On arrival, "Queen" was decommissioned by the Royal Navy and was taken over by the U.S. Navy. In excess of  Navy needs, CVE-49 was slated, in December, for disposal; struck from the Navy Register in July 1947, sold to the N.V. Stoomv, Maats, Nederland Co., Amsterdam, Netherlands and pressed into merchant service as "Roebiah" on 29 July 1947 (renamed "President Marcos" in 1967 and "Lucky One" in 1972). She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1972. Design and description. These ships were all larger and had a greater aircraft capacity than all the preceding American built escort carriers. They were also all laid down as escort carriers and not converted merchant ships. All the ships had a complement of 646 men  and an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . Propulsion was provided a steam turbine, two boilers connected to one shaft giving 9,350 brake horsepower (SHP), which could propel the ship at . Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side, two aircraft lifts by , one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. Aircraft could be housed in the by hangar below the flight deck. Armament comprised: two 4"/50, 5"/38 or 5"/51 Dual Purpose guns in single mounts, sixteen 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts and twenty 20 mm Oerlikon anti -aircraft cannons in single mounts. They had a maximum aircraft capacity of twenty-four aircraft which could be a mixture of Grumman Martlet, Vought F4U Corsair or Hawker Sea Hurricane fighter aircraft and Fairey Swordfish or Grumman Avenger anti-submarine aircraft.