not normally found in the Royal Navy. Initially, they were trained alongside US Navy personnel at purpose-built facilities in the General Electric Company factories at Cleveland and Syracuse, and were awarded certificates at the end of their training; later, training was provided in the United Kingdom. Ship's companies were shipped over to the US by them taking passage from the Clyde or Liverpool to New York on ocean liners such as . On arriving in New York, the crews were initially assigned to until they were reassigned to a Captain-class frigate. Later, some of the Captains were ferried across the Atlantic by crews of the Royal Canadian Navy coming to the United Kingdom to collect frigates ordered by the Canadians. Operations These ships were primarily deployed to Escort Groups that were then used to provide anti-submarine cover to the convoys that they escorted. The four or more ships in an escort group, by operating together under a single commander, were able to use group tactics so that with the issue of a single short command the various ships of the group, often out of sight of each other, could be relied upon to act in a co-ordinated fashion. A small number of Captains were converted to act as headquarters ships during Operation Neptune (the Normandy landings) and as coastal forces control frigates. Captains who operated with Coastal Forces (motor torpedo boats, motor gun boats and US Navy PT boats) sank at least two two-man submarines, and were involved in the destruction of at least 26 E-boats, one KFK patrol vessel (coastal escort vessels constructed so as to resemble a fishing-vessel), two minesweepers, and the shooting down of a Junkers Ju 88 aeroplane. Collectively, the Captain class gained battle honours for service in Arctic (Russian) Convoys, Atlantic, Biscay, English Channel, Normandy (D-Day on 6 June 1944 and subsequent related operations), North Foreland and Walcheren. During the course of World War II they destroyed more German submarines than any other Royal Navy ship class. Post-war At the end of World War II, most of the surviving Captains were returned to the US Navy as quickly as possible to reduce the amount payable under the provisions of the Lend-Lease agreement. The last of the Captains returned was Hotham, which in the post-war period served as a floating power station in Singapore until early 1948, when she sailed for Portsmouth, becoming the base for