CAM ships were World War II-era British merchant ships used in convoys as an emergency stop-gap until sufficient escort carriers became available. CAM ship is an acronym for catapult aircraft merchant ship. A CAM ship was equipped with a rocket-propelled catapult launching a single Hawker Hurricane, dubbed a "Hurricat" or "Catafighter". CAM ships continued to carry their normal cargoes after conversion. They are distinguished from fighter catapult ships (FCS), which also carried catapult launched fighters, in that the CAM ship was a merchant vessel commanded and crewed by the Merchant Navy but the FCS was a merchant ship that had been commissioned as a warship and commanded and crewed by the Royal Navy.