Captain-class frigate

The Captain class was the designation given to 78 frigates of the Royal Navy, constructed in the United States, launched in 1942–1943 and delivered to the United Kingdom under the provisions of the Lend-Lease agreement. They were drawn from two classes of the American destroyer escort (originally "British Destroyer Escort") classification: 32 of the GMT (Evarts) Type and 46 of the TE (Buckley) Type. Upon reaching the UK the ships were substantially modified by the Royal Navy, making them distinct from the US Navy destroyer escort ships.

Captain-class frigates acted in the roles of convoy escorts, anti-submarine warfare vessels, coastal forces control frigates and headquarters ships for the Normandy landings. During the course of World War II this class participated in the sinking of at least 34 German submarines and a number of other hostile craft; 15 of the 78 Captain-class frigates were either sunk or written off as a constructive total loss.

In the post-war period, all of the surviving Captain-class frigates except one (HMS Hotham which was used as a power station and for powerplant experiments) were returned to the US Navy before the end of 1947 in order to reduce the amount payable under the provisions of the Lend-Lease agreement; the last Captain-class frigate was returned to United States custody in March 1956.

Naming

It was the intention of the Admiralty that these ships would be named after captains who served with Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, but as building continued it became necessary to delve back further into history for the names of well-regarded admirals and captains.

Of the 78 frigates, 66 bore names that had not been allocated to earlier Royal Navy ships. Lawford, Louis, Manners, Moorsom, Mounsey, Narborough, Pasley and Seymour had been used for destroyers during World War I. HMS Rupert was the fifth of that name since 1666. Torrington was the fourth of that name since 1654.