Montrose (ship, 1897)
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The Montrose (I) was a transatlantic liner put into service in 1897, which initially belonged to Elder Dempster & Company and from 1903 to the Canadian Pacific Line . The Montrose is particularly known for its role in the criminal case of the American doctor Hawley Crippen , as Crippen wanted to flee to Canada with his lover on board the Montrose after the murder of his wife . The "Crippen Affair" made big headlines in Great Britain in 1910. The Montrose was sold to the British Admiralty in 1914 and had an accident on Goodwin Sands that same year .
The ship
The steamship Montrose was built at the Sir Raylton Dixon and Company shipyard in Middlesbrough, England, and was launched there on June 17, 1897. The 135.42 meter long and 15.85 meter wide passenger and cargo ship had four masts, a chimney, a propeller and three steam boilers . It was propelled by triple expansion steam engines that made 632 nominal horsepower (NHP) and could accelerate the ship to up to twelve knots. The Montrose was commissioned by the British shipping company Elder Dempster & Company to replace the steamer assaye (5129 BRT) that had crashed on April 5, 1897 at Seal Island in the Bay of Fundy .
The Montrose was initially intended mainly as a cargo ship and only had space for twelve first-class passengers. It was followed by four identical sister ships , the Montcalm (1897), the Monterey (1898), the Montford (1898) and the Monteagle (1898). In September 1897 the Montrose was completed and in the same month went on her maiden voyage from Middlesbrough to Quebec and Montreal . On October 29, 1897, she ran for the first time from Avonmouth to Montreal and on March 14, 1900 she made the first of a total of eight journeys from Liverpool to Cape Town as a troop transport during the Boer War . In 1901 their tonnage increased from the original 5440 GRT to 7094 GRT.
In April 1903, the Montrose and her sister ships were sold to the Canadian Pacific Line, the steamship division of the Canadian Pacific Railway . The Montrose was rebuilt again to increase passenger capacity. From then on there was space on the ship for 70 second and 1800 third class passengers. On April 20, 1903, the steamer set off for its first voyage for the Canadian Pacific Line from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal. On April 7, 1904, the Montrose started her first crossing on the London - Antwerp - Saint John route . On May 28, 1904, she ran for the first time from London via Antwerp to Quebec and Montreal.
In the following year, the tonnage was reduced to 6,278 GRT due to further conversions. In 1911 further modernizations took place, which increased the tonnage again to 7207 GRT. On October 28, 1914, the Montrose was sold to the British Admiralty , which wanted to use it as a block ship in Dover . It was already equipped with large cranes from which torpedo nets were to be lowered. The hull was also filled with cement . On December 20, 1914, however, the ship tore itself out of its anchorage in stormy weather and drifted towards the Goodwin Sands in the mouth of the Strait of Dover . There it was in South Sand Head near the East Goodwin- lightship on the position 51.14.56N, 01.34.12E aground and broke in two.
The Crippen Incident
On July 20, 1910, the wanted murderer Hawley Crippen and his lover Ethel Le Neve boarded the Montrose under a false name in Antwerp to flee Europe and start a new life in Canada. Crippen had killed his wife Cora Turner Crippen in a dispute in their house in London on the night of February 1, 1910 and buried the body in the cellar. Since then he had been on the run with his lover. They went disguised as a father-son team under the name “Mr. John Philo Robinson and Son ”on board (the petite Ethel Le Neve had dressed up as a young man). Since there were only 20 cabin passengers on board on this trip, the two attracted attention from the start because of their unbelievable staging.
The captain of the Montrose , the 36-year-old Henry George Kendall (later captain of the Empress of Ireland ), was informed of the events by telegram. Crippen and Le Neve were wanted by Scotland Yard and had dominated the British headlines for weeks. Kendall compared photographs from newspaper publications with the two suspects and invited “Mr. Robinson ”and his“ son ”at the captain's table, where he was finally convinced of the identity of the two people.
With £ 250 offered as a reward for the capture of Crippen and Le Neve, Kendall acted immediately. On July 22, 1910, he sent the following radio message, which was forwarded to Arthur Piers, the steamship manager of the Canadian Pacific Line in Liverpool:
“3pm GMT, Friday, 130 miles West Lizard - I strongly suspect that Crippen, the London cellar murderer, and accomplice are among the cabin passengers. Shaved off mustache - grows beard. Accomplice disguised as a boy. Voice and figure, however, undoubtedly that of a woman. Traveling as Mr. Robinson and son ... Kendall "
Piers passed the message on to Liverpool Police, who in turn relayed it to Scotland Yard. Walter Dew, Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, who had already been looking for Jack the Ripper , then boarded the Laurentic of the White Star Line in Liverpool to travel to Quebec and arrest Crippen. The Laurentic had a top speed of 17 knots faster than the Montrose and brought that on 27 July at the Atlantic one. Two days later, the Laurentic reached the port city of Pointe-au-Père near Quebec, the Montrose did not arrive there until July 31 at 7:30 a.m. Dew and two other police officers disguised themselves as civilians rowed in a dinghy to Montrose and arrested Crippen on the promenade deck . Ethel Le Neve was arrested in her cabin shortly afterwards.
Captain Kendall left 40 reporters on board at Pointe-au-Père, but they were not allowed to interview the two arrested persons. Then the Montrose steamed on to Quebec and Montreal. Crippen and Le Neve were extradited to Great Britain, arrived aboard the Megantic in Liverpool on August 20, 1910, and were convicted in October 1910.