HMCS Prince Robert (1930)
 The HMCS Prince Robert
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The HMCS Prince Robert was a Canadian auxiliary cruiser that was created at the beginning of the Second World War from a small passenger ship for service on the Canadian Pacific coast. The ship had been in service there between 1930 and the start of the war. After security tasks in the Pacific, the ship was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser later in the war .
The Prince Robert's last deployment was the repossession of Hong Kong and the repatriation of some Canadian prisoners of war.
In 1946 the armored ship was sold to a shipping company in London, which used it as the Charlton Sovereign primarily in passenger service to Australia. In 1952 it was sold on to Italy, where the ship was extensively converted. As the Lucania , the passenger ship was now used to the West Indies and South America until it was sold for demolition in 1962.
Construction of the Prince Robert
The ship was commissioned in 1929 with the sister ships Prince Henry and Prince David of the Canadian National Steamship, a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway (CNR), as a ferry and passenger steamer and in September 1929 in Birkenhead at the shipyard of Cammell, Laird & Company laid on keel. The launch took place on April 3, 1930.
Equipment and structural details
The ship was 117.35 meters long, so it was one of the smaller passenger ships, and 17.37 meters wide. On board there was space for a total of 404 passengers, with 334 travelers in first class and 70 people in third class (in the intermediate deck). The steamer was relatively luxuriously equipped for its size: In addition to a sun deck where sports exercises could be held, the passengers had a concert room, a smoking salon and a large dining room (in the stern area of the C-deck). Almost all cabins on board were decorated with elaborate wooden paneling.
There were a total of twelve lifeboats, six on each side of the superstructure, on board. The ship had three funnels and an engine system consisting of six Yarrow boilers and two Parsons gear turbines . In addition, there were two reserve boilers for auxiliary machines on board. The machines performed around 14,500 WPS and enabled the ship to reach a top speed of around 23 knots.
Pre-war period
From mid-1930, the Prince Robert was used along the Canadian west coast in regular service between Seattle and Vancouver . But the consequences of the Great Depression did not leave her without a trace; for example, the intention to use them on the route to Alaska had to be abandoned for the time being due to a lack of passenger numbers. In the winter months the steamer was even temporarily launched . In 1932 the ship undertook an extensive cruise through the Caribbean and along the American east coast, including visits to the Bermuda Islands, Boston and New York. From August 1932, the Prince Robert was finally used on the route to Alaska, regularly calling at Glacier Bay National Park and Ketchikan and Juneau in Alaska.
In the following years, up to the start of the war in 1939, the Prince Robert commuted as a route steamer on this route, with the passage - which lasted eleven days - cost between 100 and 215 United States dollars .
Outbreak of war and conversion to an auxiliary cruiser
Even before the outbreak of World War II, the Canadian Navy had undertaken investigations into which passenger ships could be converted into auxiliary cruisers in the event of war, including the Prince Robert and her sister ships. On September 3, 1939, two days after the German invasion of Poland and the day Great Britain declared war on the German Reich, the Prince Robert was requisitioned by the British Admiralty. As a member of the Commonwealth, Canada was also at war with Germany, even if Canada did not actually declare war until September 10, 1939.
At the end of October 1939, the Prince Robert relocated to Vancouver and was there, at the shipyard of Burrard Dry Dock Ltd. , converted to an auxiliary cruiser . The cost of this rebuild was approximately $ 700,000. The two uppermost decks were removed and replaced with superstructures similar to those of a cruiser. In addition, all cabins and the smoking salon were expanded and one of the three chimneys removed. In return, the ship was armed with four QF 6 inch / 40 guns in stand-alone setup and two 7.6 cm anti-aircraft guns, which were set up behind the aft funnel. The 6 inch (15.2 cm) guns, however, came from 1896 and were very outdated. In addition, four 12.7 mm machine guns and two discharge devices for depth charges were installed at the stern.
On July 31, 1940, the steamer was finally put into service as the auxiliary cruiser HMCS Prince Robert . The crew now comprised 241 men.
Operations in the Second World War from 1940 to 1943
Shortly after the commissioning, it was decided that the Prince Robert should be deployed off the west coast of Central America in order to combat German suppliers operating there and possibly also trade troublemakers. On September 11, 1940, the auxiliary cruiser ran under the command of Captain CT Beard from Esquimalt (south of Vancouver) and headed for the Mexican west coast.
The capture of the German freighter Weser
The Canadian auxiliary cruiser was supposed to monitor the port of Manzanillo (Mexico) , as there were indications that the German motor ship Weser , which had been lying there since 1939, wanted to leave the port. In the evening hours of 25 September, the sighted Prince Robert , the Weser (9,179 GRT), which had left the port of Manzanillo and wanted to run to my Canadians towards South America. The Weser , which had been requisitioned by the Navy in July 1940, should have supplied the German auxiliary cruiser Orion with fuel and provisions in the South Pacific . The Prince Robert followed the German motor ship until it left Mexican territorial waters. After firing a warning shot from one of the 152-mm guns, and after the searchlight of the auxiliary cruiser, the Weser had illuminated, the German ship turned on and was at 23.15 from a group consisting of 27 man boarding party of Prince Robert boarded. The occupation of the Weser offered no resistance.
On board the German ship, the Canadians captured 2630 tons of diesel fuel and 600 tons of lubricating oil, among other things . Although the Weser had previously been prepared for a possible self-sinking in the event of an attachment, the Germans failed to do so. Presumably, the German occupation was not sure whether the Canadians would actually save them after they had scuttled.
The Weser was brought in from Prince Robert to Esquimalt. There it was overhauled and renamed Vancouver Island . From then on she served in the Canadian Merchant Navy. On October 15, 1941, the ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic by the submarine U 558 , where 105 people lost their lives.
Missions in the Pacific 1941
After the Weser had been brought into Esquimalt, the auxiliary cruiser moved back to the South Pacific, called Callao and temporarily patrolled the Strait of Magellan, among other things . The search for German suppliers or trade disruptors was fruitless. The crew of HMCS Prince Robert spent Christmas 1940 in the port of Valparaíso .
At the beginning of 1941 the auxiliary cruiser was relocated to the western Pacific because of the increasing tensions with Japan and there was assigned to secure transports of Canadian troops to Hong Kong ; Among other things, the Prince Robert escorted the troop transport Awatea (13,492 GRT), which brought almost 2000 mostly Canadian soldiers to Hong Kong in November 1941.
On the march back from Hong Kong, halfway between Hawaii and Esquimalt, the auxiliary cruiser was surprised by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. On the same day, the ship's crew also received a call for help from the American freighter Cynthia Olson (2140 GRT), who had been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine about 130 nautical miles southwest of the HMCS Prince Robert's position . Although the auxiliary cruiser immediately set course for the damaged vessel and then searched the sea area over a wide area, no survivors could be found. The American ship sank with its entire crew of 35 men.
Securing the Canadian and American West Coasts in 1942
At the beginning of 1942, the HMCS Prince Robert in Esquimalt received an Asdic device for submarine hunting, a radar for air surveillance and four individually positioned 20 mm cannons to reinforce the air defense. Subsequently, the ship patrolled between March and June 1942 off the coast of British Columbia and took over security tasks.
After the Japanese landing in the Aleutian Islands , the ship was detached to the US Navy in June 1942 and made several trips to supply the American bases on Kodiak Island in the following months . These missions, which were carried out until November 1942, often demanded extreme performance from the ship and the crew: In sometimes icy temperatures, often in storms and in rain and snow, the optical devices froze and the individual guns installed on the upper deck were often not or to use only with great effort, since they were completely icy.
The conversion to a flak ship
In the winter of 1942/43, after the voyages to Kodiak Island had ended, the auxiliary cruiser went to the shipyard in Vancouver to have the weather damage removed. Since it had meanwhile recognized that the existing armament of the HMCS Prince Robert was hopelessly out of date, it was decided to completely rebuild the ship again. The auxiliary cruiser was to become a modern armed anti-aircraft ship.
For this purpose, the steamer was temporarily taken out of service in January 1943 and returned to the shipyard of Burrard Dry Dock Ltd. docked. During this second conversion, all previous weapons were dismantled. Instead, the HMCS Prince Robert now received ten modern 10.2 cm Mk XVI guns in five twin mounts, two in front of the bridge and three in the stern, eight 40 mm anti-aircraft guns in two quadruple mounts and twelve individually set up 20 mm mounts. Oerlikon type cannons. In addition, a radar for fire control and air space observation came on board. Four individual depth charges also replaced the two old unrolling devices for depth charges at the stern.
On June 7, 1943, the new anti-aircraft ship HMCS Prince Robert was put into service. At the time of commissioning, it was the most powerful anti-aircraft ship in the Canadian Navy and its firepower even surpassed some Allied anti-aircraft cruisers .
War missions from 1943 to 1945
Immediately after commissioning, HMCS relocated Prince Robert to Great Britain via Panama and the Bermuda Islands. After arriving on the Clyde in July 1943, the anti-aircraft cruiser was immediately assigned for use in the Bay of Biscay . The Allied convoys running from Gibraltar to Great Britain had been exposed to increased German air raids since the summer of 1943, after the collapse of the German submarine war in the North Atlantic. The Germans increasingly used heavy Dornier Do 217 and Heinkel He 177 warplanes as well as new and remote-controlled flying bombs of the Henschel Hs 293 type .
Battle for the double convoy MKS-30 / SL-139
On November 13, 1943, the Allied convoy MKS-30 ran out of Gibraltar , which one day later merged with the convoy SL-139 and which comprised a total of 66 merchant ships and 19 escort vehicles from November 14th.
After German agents in Gibraltar and long-range reconnaissance aircraft had captured the large convoy, German submarines and fighter planes attacked the unit from November 18. While the security was able to thwart almost all of the submarine attacks, German bombers hit the ships heavily from November 19. In order to strengthen the defense, HMCS Prince Robert was ordered to the convoy, which arrived at the convoy on the morning of November 21.
At noon on November 21, the German Air Force attacked the convoy with a total of 25 He 177 long-range bombers . The German aircraft dropped a total of 40 Hs 293 bombs. Prince Robert , who had just arrived, defended the convoy for almost two hours with her anti-aircraft guns and thwarted the heavy defensive fire that the German planes could prepare for a coordinated target approach. Overall, the Germans only scored three hits and sank the British freighter Marsa (4,405 GRT). The Delius transporter (6,055 GRT) was damaged. In return, the flak was able to shoot down three German bombers and damage two more. The Prince Robert , which was only just missed by a flying bomb during the attack, played a key role in ensuring that there were no heavy losses on the Allied side.
The final phase of the Second World War
Despite its important role in the defense of the double convoy MKS-30 / SL-139, the Prince Robert was then first transferred to the Azores and at the end of December 1943 to Plymouth without taking part in any further combat.
The flak ship spent the following six months in Plymouth and served as a stationary anti-aircraft ship. Machine problems made it impossible to use it during the Allied invasion of Normandy. After temporary repairs in Belfast in the autumn of 1944, the Prince Robert was ordered back to Esquimalt in December 1944 and returned to the shipyard of Burrard Dry Dock Ltd. docked. During a subsequent stay in port of almost four months, the machine problems were corrected and the light and medium flak were reinforced to a total of twelve 40 mm cannons and fifteen 20 mm cannons.
Since the war in Europe was now over, the Prince Robert stayed in the Pacific and took part in the largely uneventful re-occupation of Hong Kong in August 1945 . After the surrender of Japan, the flak ship ran out of Subic Bay on August 27, 1945 with the British TG.111.2 under Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt to occupy Hong Kong. The association also included the aircraft carriers Indomitable and Venerable , the cruisers Swiftsure , Euryalus and Black Prince , the destroyers Kempenfelt , Ursa , Quadrant and Whirlwind , the 8th submarine flotilla with the depot ship Maidstone and eight submarines as well as seven Australian submarines Minesweeper. On the 29th the mine sweepers began clearing and on the 30th Kempenfelt , Swiftsure with Admiral Harcourt, Ursa , Euryalus , Prince Robert , Mildura and Bathurst entered Hong Kong. Three Japanese explosive devices were observed leaving the small ordnance base. Aircraft of the Indomitable and Venerable then attacked the berth in Lamma Bay and destroyed the boats. British naval forces took over Hong Kong docks from the Japanese on August 31. The commander of the Prince Robert took part in the formal Japanese surrender of the Japanese armed forces on site as the representative of Canada.
The flak cruiser then ran from Hong Kong to Manila and took 59 former Canadian prisoners of war on board. The ship then began its journey home and reached Esquimalt again on October 20, 1945. On this last voyage alone, the Prince Robert had covered a distance of 22,000 nautical miles.
the post war period
On December 10, 1945, the flak ship was withdrawn and in January 1946 handed over to the War Assets Corporation , which had taken over the handling of war equipment that was no longer needed. Since the ship was still in good condition - especially after the last major overhaul - it was not scrapped and the former HMCS Prince Robert was put up for sale after the armament had been dismantled.
In September 1946, the steamer was finally sold to the London-based Charlton Steam Shipping Company Ltd. , a subsidiary of the Greek shipping company Chandris . The price was around $ 1,500,000. Under the new name Charlton Sovereign , the ship served in passenger service until 1952 and was mainly used on the route from Great Britain to Australia.
In April 1952, the steamer was unexpectedly sold to the shipping company of the Monegasque brothers Grimaldi (from 1955 Grimaldi-SIOSA line) for a price of 1,367,000 US dollars . The ship was renamed Lucania and rebuilt. The hull was extended by about 15 meters by installing a section (which increased the size to almost 7,800 GRT). In addition, three new tween decks were drawn in and a ballroom , a swimming pool and a children's pool were installed. The ship, painted completely white except for the blue chimneys, was used on the route to South America and the Caribbean after the conversion and called at Curaçao , Havana in Cuba and the Azores , among others .
Whereabouts
The Lucania was in the service of Grimaldi Lines for almost ten years and sailed the route between Genoa and South America before it was decommissioned in 1962 - after a total of more than 30 years of service - and scrapped in La Spezia from the summer of 1962 . Above all, the increasing air traffic with jet planes had ultimately deprived the ship of its financial basis.
literature
- Ludwig Dinklage, Hans Jürgen Witthöft: The German merchant fleet 1939-1945. The fate of all seagoing ships over 100 GRT. Volume 2. Hamburg 2001, p. 24.
- Janusz Piekalkiewicz: Sea War 1939–1945 . Augsburg 1998, p. 276.
Web links
- MV Vancouver Island (+1941)
- airmuseum.ca:
- Rohwer: Sea War , November 13-21, 1943, North Atlantic, North-South route.
- Lucania 1951-1962, ex Prince Robert
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b airmuseum.ca
- ↑ airmuseum.ca
- ↑ wrecksite.eu
- ↑ airmuseum.ca
- ↑ a b airmuseum.ca
- ↑ Piekalkiewicz, Janusz: Seekrieg 1939-1945, p. 276
- ↑ a b c wlb-stuttgart.de
- ↑ Mildura , Castlemaine , Bathurst , Broome , Fremantle , Strahan and Wagga
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare, 27.- 31.08.1945 South China Sea
- ↑ simplonpc.co.uk