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Royal Navy Carrier in World War Two

H.M.S. ARBITER

In memory of George Harry Smith 1902 - 1967

(steward HMS Arbiter 1943-45)

By Norman Michael Phipps

This is very much an amateur web site (it being my first and only). The aim of this Web Site is to present for the first time, Photographs nearly Sixty years old. The Photography is amateur, like the scanning and the Site building. All the photographs i have are displayed on this website and sadly so is all the information i have on them (which isn't a great deal). Please, I am not a World War Two expert and cannot answer your questions. All i know is contained in this web site.

These Photographs were taken by my Great Grandfather on board H.M.S. ARBITER, A British Royal Navy Carrier during World War Two. The carrier was part of the "Lend-Lease" programme from the U.S.A. What follows is a brief History...

26-April-1943 … Started life as ST. SIMON (ACV-51). Originally classified as an Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier, laid down at Tacoma, Wash, by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Co.

15-July-1943 … Reclassified as an Escort Aircraft Carrier, CVE-51.

09-Sept-1943 … Launched by Mrs. R. H. Lewis, the wife of Major General R. H. Lewis, Commanding General, Northwestern Sector, Fort Lewis, Wash. Assigned to the Commercial Iron Works, Portland, Oreg., for the completion of construction.

31-Dec-1943 … Delivered to the Royal Navy, under lend-lease, Renamed ARBITER and given the pendant number D.31.

WW2 … ARBITER (R303) served in the Royal Navy for the duration of World War II. She earned battle honours in the Atlantic during 1944, serving on the western approaches to the British Isles, and in 1945 served as one of seven similar ships engaged in operating as an aircraft ferry supporting the British Pacific Fleet's train, bringing up replacement aircraft or providing combat air patrol for replenishment ships.

23-Feb-1946 … Returned to Norfolk, Va.

03-March-1946 … Accepted by the United States Navy.

12-April-1946 … Struck from the Navy list.

30-January-1946 … Sold to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va. and Converted to the cargo ship CORACERO.

1965 … Renamed PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL.

1972 … Renamed LUCKY TWO before she was scrapped in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Anyone with additional infomation about H.M.S. ARBITER, or with other War time Photographs e-mail me. I will amend this site accordingly. Thanks