HMS Royalist (89)

	Royalist anchored at Greenock, Scotland, in September 1943
History
United Kingdom
Name	Royalist
Builder	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock
Laid down	21 March 1940
Launched	30 May 1942
Commissioned	10 September 1943
Recommissioned	1967
Decommissioned	November 1967
Out of service	In reserve from 1946 to 1956 Loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy from 1956 to 1966
Identification	Pennant number: 89
Fate	Sold for scrap, November 1967
New Zealand
Name	HMNZS Royalist
Commissioned	1956
Decommissioned	1966
Out of service	Returned to Royal Navy control 1967
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Dido-class light cruiser
Displacement	5,950 tons standard; 7,200 tons full load;
Length	485 ft (148 m) pp; 512 ft (156 m) oa;
Beam	50 ft 6 in (15.39 m)
Draught	14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power	62,000 shp (46 MW)
Propulsion	4 geared steam turbines; Four shafts; Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers;
Speed	32.25 knots (59.73 km/h; 37.11 mph)
Range	1,303 nmi (2,414 km) at 30 kn (56 km/h); 3,685 nmi (6,824 km) at 16 kn (30 km/h);
Complement	530
Armament	8 × QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) guns,; 6 × dual 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns,; 3 × quadruple 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom",; 2 × triple 21-inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes;
Armour	Belt: 3 in (76 mm),; Deck: 1 in (25 mm),; Magazines: 2 in (51 mm); Bulkheads: 1 in (25 mm);

HMS Royalist was a Bellona-class (improved Dido-class) light cruiser of the Royal Navy (RN) during the Second World War.

After commissioning in 1943, Royalist was modified with extra facilities and crew for operating as a flagship for aircraft carrier operations. Initially, it operated in the North Sea before transferring to the Mediterranean for the invasion of southern France. Royalist remained in the Mediterranean for actions against German forces in the Aegean to the end of 1944. Then it moved to the Far East in February 1945 where it served until the end of the war.

The Royalist was then put into reserve until 1953 when the RN decided to proceed with plans to refit the ship for a new intended operational role as a fast radar picket. The cost of reconstruction and reactivation of the ship led the RN to transfer the vessel to the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) in 1956 as a replacement for its sister ship HMS Bellona, which had been in New Zealand service since 1947. In return, New Zealand covered the reconstruction costs of the Royalist. After ten years of service with the RNZN, which included involvement in the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation from 1963 to 1965, the ship returned to the United Kingdom where it was scrapped.

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