HMS Aimwell (W 113) was a Favourite-class tugboat of the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

History
United Kingdom
BuilderDefoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Launched8 April 1942
Commissioned6 June 1942
Stricken1 May 1946
FateReturned to US Navy, transferred to merchant service in 1948, mined in Mekong River, 1975
General characteristics
Displacement852 tons light
Length143 ft (44 m)
Beam33 ft 4 in (10.16 m) (extreme)
Draught13 ft 2 in (4.01 m) (limiting)
Propulsionone General Motors Diesel-electric model 12-278A

single Fairbanks Morse Main Reduction Gear Ship's Service Generators one Diesel-drive 60 kW 120 V D.C. one Diesel-drive 30 kW 120 V D.C.

single propeller, 1,500shp
Speed13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement45
Armament

Service history

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Aimwell was laid down on 15 November 1941 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, as BAT-7. She was delivered to the United States Navy and was transferred to the Royal Navy under the Lend-Lease Act on 6 June 1942. HMRT Aimwell was visited by Franklin D. Roosevelt on 26 January 1943, when Roosevelt was returning from the Casablanca Conference.[1] The tug was stationed with West Africa Command between 1942 and 1943.[2] She returned to American custody postwar on 30 March 1946. BAT-7 was struck on 1 May 1946 and sold to Moller on 6 January 1948. Renamed Patricia Moller, she was again renamed Golden Cape in 1952 and finally sold in 1971 to the Luzon Stevedoring Corporation.[3] She was renamed Hawkeye and was mined and sunk in the Mekong on 3 February 1975.[4]

References

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  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

  1. ^ Roosevelt, Franklin D. (January 1950). Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1943, Volume 12. p. 48. ISBN 9781623769727.
  2. ^ "Admiralty War Diaries, West Africa Command".
  3. ^ "Aimwell (W-113)". Great Lakes Vessels Online Index. Bowling Green State University. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  4. ^ "Navsource Service Ship Photo Archive".
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