HMAS Albatross (later HMS Albatross) was a seaplane tender of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), which was later transferred to the Royal Navy and used as a repair ship. Albatross was built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard during the mid-1920s and entered service at the start of 1929. The ship experienced problems with the aircraft assigned to her during her career: the amphibious aircraft she had been designed for were retired just before the ship entered service, the replacement aircraft could not be catapult-launched from the ship, and a new plane designed specifically to work with the ship began operations after Albatross was demoted from seagoing status in 1933.
After five years in reserve, Albatross was transferred to the Royal Navy to offset the Australian purchase of the light cruiser . Although the British had little use for a seaplane carrier, the ship found a niche after two aircraft carriers were sunk by the Germans early in World War II. Albatross was initially based in Freetown, Sierra Leone for patrol and convoy escort duties in the southern Atlantic, then was relocated to the Indian Ocean in mid-1942. From late 1943 to early 1944, the vessel underwent conversion into a "Landing Ship (Engineering)" to support the Normandy landings, and was used to repair landing craft and other support vessels off Sword and Juno Beaches. Albatross was torpedoed in October, but survived to be towed back to England and repaired. After repairs completed at the start of 1945, she served as a minesweeper depot ship, but was decommissioned after the war's end.
Albatross was sold into civilian service in August 1946, and after several changes of hands was renamed Hellenic Prince in 1948 and converted into a passenger liner. The vessel was chartered by the International Refugee Organisation to transport refugees from Europe to Australia. Hellenic Prince saw service as a troopship during the 1953 Mau Mau uprising, but was broken up for scrap a year later.
Design and construction
In 1925, Governor-General Lord Stonehaven announced the construction of a seaplane carrier, to the surprise of both the RAN and RAAF. The decision to acquire a seaplane carrier was prompted by both the need to provide work during the high unemployment of the 1920s and the realisation that a conventional aircraft carrier was outside the ability of the RAN to finance or man. The Australian Commonwealth Naval Board requested that the British Admiralty supply a basic design for a seaplane carrier, with the conditions that the ship have a top speed of , and cost under 400,000 pounds if built in a British shipyard.
The ship displaced 4,800 tons at standard load. She was long overall, with a beam of at her moulded depth and over the gun sponsons, and an initial maximum draught of , although this had increased to by 1936. The propulsion machinery consisted of four Yarrow boilers supplying Parsons geared turbines. These generated , which was fed to two propeller shafts. Although Albatross was designed with a maximum speed of , full-power trials showed that the ship was capable of . At that speed, she had a range of , although she could cover at the more economical . Albatross armament consisted of four QF 4.7-inch Mk VIII naval guns, four QF 2-pounder pom-pom guns, four QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss saluting guns, four .303-inch Vickers machine guns, and twenty .303-inch Lewis machine guns (ten singles and five twin mounts). The ship's company consisted of 29 RAN officers, 375 RAN sailors, 8 RAAF officers, and 38 RAAF enlisted.