On the 27th March 1943, Royal Navy Avenger-class escort carrier, HMS Dasher (D37), suffered a major internal explosion and sank midway between Arran and Ardrossan, on the Clyde.
The Avenger-class escort carriers were converted American merchant ships and were not built to the same specifications as Royal Navy and US Navy vessels. Fuel storage and leaking fuel tanks appear to have been a major problem.
On the 27th, Dasher was carrying out exercises with the vessel’s embarked Sea Hurricanes and Swordfish aircraft in preparation for a strike against the German warship Tirpitz in Norway.
Of the 528 crewmen on-board, 379 died.
