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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

SUNSET   (CVE-48)  /  HMS THANE   (D83)




Battle Honours

Atlantic 1944
CLASS - (USN) BOGUE / (RN) AMEER
Displacement 7,800 Tons, Dimensions, 495' 8" (oa) x 69' 6" x 26' (Max)
Armament 2 x 5"/51 4 x 40mm, 10 x 20mm, 28 Aircraft.
Machinery, 8,500 SHP; Allis-Chambers, Geared Turbines, 1 screw
Speed, 17.5 Knots, Crew 890.

Operational and Building Data

Built by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp., Tacoma, Wash. Laid down on 23 February 1943, with hull number ACV-48. Launched on 15 July 1943 and redesignated CVE-48 the same day. Transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend/Lease agreement on 19 November 1943 and commissioned the same day as HMS Thane (D83).

Torpedoed on 15 January 1945 while in the Irish Sea. Towed to Scotland and declared a constructive total loss. (Note: for years the attack on HMS Thane was credited to U-482. Later research, however, indicates it was plausibly carried out by U-1172U-482 having been probably lost about one month earlier).

FATE: Returned to US custody in December 1945 and stricken. Sold for scrap.


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Name
Thane
NS0304818
21k

ACV-48 (later CVE-48) was named Sunset by the US Navy, 23 August 1942.

Transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease agreement on 19 November 1943, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy the same day as HMS Thane. In Anglo-Saxon England, "Thane" was the title of a freeman granted land by the king in return for military service, ranking above an ordinary freeman but below a nobleman. (Unofficial ship's badge and partial text courtesy of Tony Drury, Royal Navy Escort Carriers.)

NavSource.
The Ship
HMS Thane
NS0304820
253k

Close up photo of Sunset (CVE-48) just as she enters the water at the Tacoma Yard of Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp, 15 July 1943, the 43rd ship launched at this yard. Never commissioned in the U.S. Navy, the ship became HMS Thane (D83) under Lend-Lease.

Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio, Richards Studio 43-20.

Mike Green.
HMS Thane
NS0304820a
490k

Launching photo of Sunset (CVE-48) after she entered the water at the Tacoma Yard of Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp, 15 July 1943. She became HMS Thane (D83), 19 November 1943, under Lend-Lease.

Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio, Richards Studio 43-21.

HMS Thane
NS0304801
243k

June 28, 1944 — HMS Thane has just passed under Lions Gate Bridge returning to Lapointe pier, Vancouver after collecting ammunition from Bremerton Navy Yard, Washington State.

(Photo digitally restored by Paul Bass).

Photo courtesy of Paul Bass.

Information from Tony Drury, Royal Navy Escort Carriers.)
HMS Thane
NS0304816
19k

Dedication ceremony on the flight deck, Saturday, 1 July 1944. The church service was led by The Right Reverend Sir Francis Cooke Caulfeild Heathcote, Bishop of New Westminster B.C. from 1940–1951, and the last knighted bishop in Canada. Thane's commanding officer, Captain Edmond Baker, RN read the Ship's Commissioning Warrant.

Photo courtesy of Maureen Ross.

Information from Tony Drury (Royal Navy Escort Carriers) and David Weaver.
HMS Thane
NS0304821
100k

"LtCmd David Harvey Wiseman (1905–1996), Pay master Merchant Navy transferred to RN at start of WW2. He stood by the fitting out of HMS Thane in Vancouver in 1944, he is second from the left on the attached, a posed photo taken by the Vancouver Sun photographer. LtCmd Wiseman wrote the account on the back of the photo in his late eighties."

"6th June 1944. Vancouver B.C. This was a posed photo, for the press I was supposed to be reading the signal announcing the landing on D Day. The carrier was in dockyard hands, having new safety fire curtains."

Roger B. Wiseman,
for his father LtCmd David Harvey Wiseman
HMS Thane
NS0304817
114k

HMS Thane photographed by an aircraft from HMS Puncher while at No. 1 Casualty Buoy on the Clyde, January 17, 1945.

Note: This is a rare picture in which she is wearing her pennant number (see also NS0304818). Thane is usually listed as having been assigned pennant number "D48," which in fact pertained to the British-built escort carrier HMS Campania. As these photos show, Thane was actually "D83."

Photo courtesy of Maureen Ross.

Information from Tony Drury (Royal Navy Escort Carriers).
HMS Thane
NS0304818
146k

Ex-HMS Thane alongside at Faslane. Dismantling has not long begun — her armament has already been removed. This photo was taken some time after Thane was reduced to nominal reserve status, July 21, 1945 and before her return to US custody, December 1945.

Tony Drury (Royal Navy Escort Carriers).
HMS Thane
NS0304818a
62k

Similar view, as above.

Gerhard Mueller-Debus.
The Crew
HMS Thane
NS0304802
92k

Crew celebrating "crossing the line" ie being made to pay homage to King Neptune when a crew member crosses the equator for the first time.

Paul Bass
HMS Thane
NS0304803
96k

Crew celebrating "crossing the line" ie being made to pay homage to King Neptune when a crew member crosses the equator for the first time.

Paul Bass
HMS Thane
NS0304804
88k

Crew inspection on the flight deck.

Paul Bass
HMS Thane
NS0304805
86k

Crew inspection on the flight deck.

Paul Bass
HMS Thane
NS0304806
104k

Crew inspection on the flight deck.

Paul Bass
HMS Thane
NS0304815
50k

"In 1944, my brother and I returned from the USA to the UK on Thane — we had been evacuated to the US in 1940. This photo shows the officer appointed to look after us, Sub Lieut. Gordon Mc Nally RNVR, with my brother beside him. I am on the right. I cannot remember who the other 3 boys were."

John Bedwell

For more photos and information about this ship, see:

Read the Sunset (CVE-48) / HMS THANE (D83) DANFS History entry

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

Not Applicable To This Ship
Additional Resources
Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages By Andrew Toppan.
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Last update: 8 April 2023