Ocean boarding vessel

Ocean boarding vessels (OBVs) were merchant ships taken over by the Royal Navy during the Second World War for the purpose of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels.

HMS Cavina in 1941

Ships

Ship	Date launched/ completed	Date requisitioned/ commissioned	History
HMS Ariguani	1926		Converted to "Catapult Armed Ship". Used for convoy escort
HMS Camito	June 1915	26 September 1940	Torpedoed and sunk 6 May 1941[1]
HMS Cavina	August 1940	July 1942	Converted from a banana boat. Returned to Elders & Fyffes[2]
HMS Corinthian			Rescued survivors of Duchess of Atholl October 1942[3] Rescued survivors of RMS Empress of Canada 14 March 1943.[4]
HMS Crispin	1935	August 1940	Sunk 4 February 1941 after torpedo attack previous day[5]
HMS Empire Audacity	29 March 1939	11 November 1940	Former German ship Hannover captured 7/8 March 1940 and put into British service. Commissioned as Ocean boarding vessel in November 1940 but sent for conversion to escort aircraft carrier in January 1941.
HMS Fratton	28 September 1925	August 1940	The cross channel steamer was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a Barrage Balloon Vessel, converted to Ocean Boarding Vessel in 1943. She was sunk off Normandy by a Neger manned torpedo 18 August 1944.[6]
HMS Hilary	17 April 1931	21 January 1941	Former Hilary; restored as a merchantman 15 April 1942; recommissioned as an infantry landing and headquarters ship 1943; returned to civilian service after the war in 1945; scrapped 1959.
Inanda	1925	11 August 1940	Bombed and sunk on 7 September 1940. Salvaged and converted to cargo ship Empire Explorer, never saw service as an ocean boarding vessel. Torpedoed and sunk in July 1942.
Inkosi	1937	11 August 1940	Bombed and sunk on 7 September 1940. Salvaged and converted to cargo ship Empire Chivalry, never saw service as an ocean boarding vessel. Sold postwar and renamed Planter. Scrapped 1958.
HMS Lady Somers[7]	1929		Requisitioned by Admiralty in 1940. Sunk by Italian submarine Morosini in N Atlantic, 15 July 1941.
HMS Largs	1938	1941	French ship Charles Plumier in 1938; seized by Royal Navy; returned to France 1945; sold to a Greek company and renamed Pleias 1964; scrapped 1968
HMS Malvernian[7]	1937		Abandoned after being bombed, North Atlantic, 19 July 1941
HMS Manistee	1920	1940	Sailed with Atlantic convoy OB 288. Sunk 24 February 1941, no survivors
HMS Marsdale			Participated in locating German supply ships after Bismarck had been sunk
HMS Maplin	1932		Formerly Erin. Converted to Fighter catapult ship 1940.
Patia	1922		Converted to Fighter catapult ship in 1940. Sank after attacked by German aircraft 1941
HMS Registan[8]	1930	13 September 1940	Bombed off Cape Cornwall 27 May 1941; repaired and returned to merchant use November 1941; sunk 29 September 1942[9]

See also

• Armed boarding steamer – British vessels of similar purpose in First World War
• Hired armed vessels – British vessels that performed convoy escort duties, anti-privateer patrols, and ran errands during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, and earlier.