HMS Archer was a built by the United States in 1939–1940 and operated by the Royal Navy during World War II. She was built as the cargo ship Mormacland, but was converted to an escort carrier and renamed HMS Archer. Her transmission was a constant cause of problems which led to her being withdrawn from front-line service. She was used as a stores ship and then as an accommodation ship before a refit and subsequent use as a merchant aircraft ferry ship, Empire Lagan. She was returned to the US Navy, then laid up as Archer before being sold into merchant service and converted to a passenger ship, Anna Salén. She was used to take emigrants to Australia and Canada in the early 1950s. She was sold and renamed Tasmania and after further service as an emigrant ship was converted back to a cargo ship. She was later sold and renamed Union Reliance. She was scrapped after a collision and fire in 1961. Design and description Mormacland was laid down as a type C3 cargo ship on 1 August 1939, under United States Maritime Commission contract (MC Hull 46), by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania, as Yard number 184. She was launched on 14 December 1939 and completed on 24 April 1940. HMS Archer was the only Long Island class escort carrier in service with the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was converted from the American merchant ship Mormacland which was built at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. She was laid down on 1 August 1939, launched on 14 December 1939 and delivered on 24 April 1940. She was converted to an escort aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Basin Iron Works at Brooklyn New York and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 6 May 1942, under the command of Captain Conolly Abel Smith. Archer had a complement of 555 men and an overall length of , a beam of and a height of . She displaced at normal load and at deep load. Propulsion was provided by four diesel engines connected to one shaft giving 8,500 brake horsepower (BHP), which could propel the ship at . Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side and above the long wooden flight deck, one aircraft lift by , one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. Aircraft could be housed in the