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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

KEWEENAW (CVE-44)  /  HMS PATROLLER


Contributed by Tommy Trampp



Battle Honours

Atlantic 1944–45
CLASS - BOGUE
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.
Fate: 1948: Converted to a cargo ship, renamed Almkerk (Dutch flag). 1968: Pacific Alliance. March 1974: Scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

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Name
Keweenaw Bay
NS0304408
75k

ACV-44 (later CVE-44) was named Keweenaw Bay for a bay of Lake Superior along the northern shore of the upper peninsula of Michigan (NS0304408, map courtesy of Google Maps).

Assigned to the United Kingdom, 10 June 1943, and transferred under Lend-Lease on 22 October of the same year, she was renamed Patroller. A "Patroller" is an individual who walks or goes around or through an area, building, etc., to make sure that it is safe. The coat of arms was suggested by the ship's officers and possibly depicts a Chippewa Indian brave, since the Chippewas (also known as Ojibwe, Ojibwa, or Saulteaux) live in the L'Anse Indian Reservation in Keweenaw Bay, the original name of the ship (blazon courtesy of Tommy Trampp).

NavSource
Patroller
NS0304407
61k
HMS Patroller (D07)
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller
NS0304401
35k

HMS Patroller. Date and place unknown.

Haze Gray & Underway
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller
NS0304403
40k

HMS Patroller. Date and place unknown.

Tony Drury (Royal Navy Escort Carriers)
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller
NS0304404
109k

HMS Patroller in April 1944 at Esquimalt, British Columbia, just before she entered the Burrard Dry Dock. Note she still has the single Oerlikon mounts on the foc'sle deck—these were replaced by powered twin mountings while she was in Vancouver.

Malcolm Rogers, via Tony Drury (Royal Navy Escort Carriers)
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller
NS0304405
43k

HMS Patroller in November 1944, location unknown.

Robert Hurst
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller
NS0304406
37k

HMS Patroller on her return to the UK in October 1946 flying her paying off pennant with members of the crew lining the flight deck in the traditional act of "dressing ship" for entering harbor.

Tony Drury (Royal Navy Escort Carriers)
Commercial Service
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller/Almkerk
NS0304409
148k

Ex-Keweenaw, ex-HMS Patroller, as the Dutch Almkerk, being maneuvered by tugs in the port of Hamburg, Germany, 1965.

Gerhard Mueller‑Debus
Keweenaw (CVE-44)/HMS Patroller/Almkerk
NS0304402
177k

Ex-Keweenaw, ex-HMS Patroller, as the Dutch Almkerk. Bremen, Germany, October 1966.

Photo by Gerhard Mueller-Debus

Read the KEWEENAW (CVE-44) / HMS PATROLLER (D07) DANFS History entry

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

Not Applicable To This Ship
Additional Resources
Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages by Andrew Toppan.
"A History of HMS Patroller," Royal Navy Escort Carriers, by Tony Drury.
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This page was created by Paul Yarnall and is maintained by Fabio Peña
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Last update: 18 May 2019