British Escort Carrier HMS Pretoria Castle

British Escort Carrier HMS Pretoria Castle F61

Harland and Wolff built Pretoria Castle in Belfast as a Union-Castle ocean liner, launching her in 1938 and completing her in April 1939. The Admiralty requisitioned her for the Royal Navy in October 1939, and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser with eight 6-inch (152 mm) and two 3-inch (76 mm) guns, entering service in November 1939. In this role she served mainly in the South Atlantic.

In July 1942 the Admiralty bought her outright for conversion to an escort carrier by Swan Hunter on Tyneside. For her new role her armament included ten Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. She was commissioned in her new role in July 1943. She operated as a trials and training carrier, seeing no active combat service.

After the war the ship was sold back to the Union-Castle Line in 1946 and converted back to a passenger liner, restored to its route between England and South Africa but renamed Warwick Castle. She was sold and scrapped in Barcelona in July 1962.