The Roc was a copy of the Skua. It was a two-seat low-wing cantilever monoplane made entirely out of metal equipped with a retractable undercarriage and featuring foldable wings to make it easier to storage it in aircraft carriers. It was powered by a single Bristol Perseus engine which yielded 890hp (664Kw) of power and drove a three-bladed propeller. It was armed with the same type of turret that the Defiant was armed with which had four 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning Machine guns and had the same underwing bomb racks the Skua had, which allowed it to carry eight 30lb (14Kg) of bombs.
On 28th April 1937 the Roc was awarded the contract and an order of 136 aircrafts was placed by the Air Ministry but, as Blackburn was already full on the Skua and the B-26 Botha bomber, they sub-contracted production to Boulton Paul, at Wolverhampton.
The first flight took place on 23rd December 1938 and showed acceptable handling (better than the Skua) but with poor performance with a top speed of only 223mph (359km/h). Due to that performance, it was suggested by the Fifht Sea Lord (the commander-in-chief of Naval Air Services) Alexander Ramsay that the Roc had to be abandoned. Anyway, its production was allowed to continue as cancellation would disrupt Boulton Paul's production too much. Instead plans were made to adapt the aircraft for target-towing.
It was required not only to be a carrier fighter but also to be a floatplane, so a conversion kit with the floats from a Blackburn Shark was made but it proved to be unstable and in December 1939 it crashed when being tested at Helensburg Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment where it was take in September 1939. A larger ventral fin was fitted to solve stability problems, the floats hindered performance too much with top speed falling to only 193mph (311km/h) and plans to form a floatplane Roc Squadron were discarded.
It equipped however two Fleet Air Arm squadrons, the 800 and 803 late in 1939 with three or four Roc supplementing the Skuas. When 803 Naval Air Squadron was rebased to Northern Scotland, to provide aerial defense for Scapa-Flow naval base, the Rocs proved to be ineffective being described as a "constant hindrance" and eventually replacing all their Rocs by Skuas.
A small number of them saw action during the Allied campaign in Norway when some of them were assigned to 800 and 801 Naval Air Squadrons on board of HMS Ark Royal where they carried out pointless combat patrols over the fleet, showing inadequate performance against German aircrafts.
They operated also over France during spring/summer 1940 at the evacuations of Allied forces, which is when the most probable sole aerial victory of the Roc happened. It was on 28th May 1940 when a Roc on patrol belonging to the 806 Naval Air Squadron flown by pilot Midshipman A.G. Day and two Skuas intercepted five German Junkers Ju.88 attacking a convoy off Ostende, in Belgium. The Roc flew underneath the Germans, while the Skuas attacked from above. Day's Skua shot down a Ju.88 and returned safely to RAF Detling, in Kent. Some Rocs of the 801 Naval Air Squadron also strafed and dive-bombed German E-boats at Boulougne harbour on 12th June damaging several of them and later, on 20th June they were used to bomb gun emplacements at Cap Gris Nez in Calais, France.
It was relegated to air sea rescue and target towing. Number 2 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit at Gosport received 16 Rocs to replace the Blackburn Shark in June 1940. Some of them were sent to Bermuda to be part of the anti-air defences there and were in service until June 1943. The last four Rocs based at HMS Daedalus in Gosport, survived until late 1944 still being airworthy and with their turrets being used for anti-aircraft defence.
The Finnish Air Force ordered 33 aircrafts directly to Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Company Ltd. and they were even sailed, but they didn't go beyond Dyce, in Aberdeen as deliveries were cancelled due to the Winter War and were absorbed into Fleet Air Arm's order.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Roc
2. http://www.britishaviation-ptp.com/b/blackburn_skua_roc.html
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