HMS Hector (F45)

Last updated

HMS Hector (F45).jpg
History
United Kingdom
NameHector
Namesake Hector
Owner Ocean Steam Ship Co
Operator
Port of registry Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Liverpool (1924–39)
RouteLiverpool – Far East
Builder Scotts Shilbuilding & Eng Co
Cost£419,254
Yard number521
Launched18 June 1924
Completed19 September 1924
Commissioned20 December 1939
Reclassified Armed merchant cruiser 1939–42
Identification
Fate
  • Sunk by air attack 5 April 1942
  • Refloated and scrapped 1946
General characteristics
Type Refrigerated cargo and passenger liner
Tonnage
Length498.8 ft (152.0 m)
Beam62.3 ft (19.0 m)
Draught26.4 ft (8.0 m)
Propulsion steam turbines; twin screws
Speed15 knots (28 km/h)
Sensors and
processing systems		wireless direction finding (by 1934)
Armament
Notes

HMS Hector was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1924. She was the fourth of six civilian ships to bear the name. [1]

Contents

In the Second World War Hector was converted into an armed merchant cruiser. She was the eleventh HMS Hector in the history of the Royal Navy.

A Japanese air raid sank her in Ceylon in 1942. In 1946 she was raised and scrapped.

Building

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company built Hector in Greenock, Scotland. [2] Isobel Cripps launched her on 18 June 1924 and she was completed on 16 September. [3]

Hector was the third of a set of four sister ships built for Alfred Holt and Company of Liverpool, who owned Blue Funnel Line and other shipping lines including the Ocean Steam Ship Company. Her sisters were Sarpedon and Patroclus launched in 1923, and Antenor launched in 1924. All were named after characters in Homer's Iliad .

Hector was 498.8 ft (152.0 m) long, 62.3 ft (19.0 m) beam and had a depth of 26.4 ft (8.0 m). [2] She had a counter stern, slightly raked stem, one funnel and two masts. [4] She had accommodation for first class passengers only. [5]

Hector's tonnages were 11,198  GRT and 6,841  NRT. She had steam turbines driving twin screws via single-reduction gearing, [2] which gave her a service speed of 15 knots (28 km/h). [6] By 1934 Patroclus had been fitted with wireless direction finding equipment. [7]

Civilian service

Scotts delivered Hector to Blue Funnel on 23 September 1924 [3] and she made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to the Far East on 24 September 1924. [8] This was the regular route for Hector and her three sisters. [4]

On 27 August 1939, a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Admiralty requisitioned Hector and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Her primary armament was six BL 6-inch Mk XII naval guns [9] and her secondary armament included two QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns. [10] Her conversion was completed on 20 December 1939. [11]

Hector served on the New Zealand Station from January to July 1940 and the East Indies Station from August 1940 until February 1942. In March 1942 she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet. [11]

Loss

Hector was dry docked in Colombo in Ceylon to prepare for decommissioning. [8] On 5 April 1942 Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked the port in the Easter Sunday Raid. The Japanese force had hoped to catch remnants of the Eastern Fleet in harbour, but most of the fleet had left earlier. Japanese aircraft attacked the few targets they could find, one of which was Hector. She was hit by five bombs that set her on fire, and after several hours she sank. The air raid also sank the destroyer HMS Tenedos in the harbour. [12] The cruisers HMS Cornwall and Dorsetshire were sunk at sea later that day. [13]

The Admiralty returned the wreck of Hector to the Ocean Steamship Company on 20 April 1942, but because of the war she was not refloated until 1946. [8] She was beached 5 nautical miles (9 km) north of Colombo for assessment. [3] She was judged to be beyond economical repair, and was sold for scrap. [11]

Related Research Articles

RMS <i>Alcantara</i> (1926) British ocean liner

RMS Alcantara was a Royal Mail Lines ocean liner that was built in Belfast in 1926. She served in the Second World War first as an armed merchant cruiser and then a troop ship. She returned to civilian service in 1948 and was scrapped in 1958.

MS <i>Dunnottar Castle</i>

MS Dunnottar Castle was a British-built passenger ship with a career of more than six decades that included periods as an ocean liner, an armed merchant cruiser (AMC), a troop ship and several decades as a cruise ship. As a cruise ship she was renamed Victoria, then The Victoria and finally Princesa Victoria.

RMS <i>Mooltan</i>

RMS Mooltan was an ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). She was ordered in 1918 and completed in 1923. She served in the Second World War first as the armed merchant cruiser HMS Mooltan (F75) and then as a troop ship. She was retired from P&O service in 1953 and scrapped in 1954.

RMS <i>Viceroy of India</i>

RMS Viceroy of India was an ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). She was a British Royal Mail Ship on the Tilbury–Bombay route and was named after the Viceroy of India. In World War II, she was converted to and used as a troopship. She was sunk in the Mediterranean in November 1942 by German submarine U-407.

SS <i>Ranchi</i>

SS Ranchi was Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company "R"-class steam ocean liner that was built in 1925 and scrapped in 1953. From 1939 to 1943 she was the Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Ranchi.

SS Antenor was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1924. She was the third of five ships to bear the name.

MV <i>Reina del Pacifico</i> Ocean liner of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company

MV Reina del Pacifico was a 17,707 GRT ocean liner of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was built in Northern Ireland in 1930–31 and sailed between Liverpool and the Pacific coast of South America until 1939. She served as a troop ship from 1939 until 1946. She returned to her civilian route in 1948 and was scrapped in 1958.

SS <i>Clan Alpine</i> (1918)

SS Clan Alpine was a UK steam cargo liner. She was launched in 1918 and sunk by a U-boat in 1943.

SS <i>Laurentic</i> (1927)

The second SS Laurentic was a 18,724 GRT steam ocean liner built in 1927 by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, for White Star Line. She was the last steamship to be built for White Star Line.

SS Patroclus was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1923. She was the third of five ships to bear the name.

SS <i>Sarpedon</i> (1923)

SS Sarpedon was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1923. She was the fourth of six ships to bear the name.

SS Manistee was an Elders & Fyffes Ltd banana boat that was launched in 1920. She was one of a numerous class of similar banana boats built for Elders & Fyffes in the 1920s.

SS Almeda Star, originally SS Almeda, was a British turbine steamer of the Blue Star Line. She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship, providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London. She was built in 1926, significantly enlarged in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1941.

SS <i>Slamat</i>

SS Slamat was a Dutch ocean liner of the Rotterdam-based Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd line. Although she was a turbine steamship, she tended not to be referred to as "TSS". She was built in Vlissingen in the Netherlands in 1924 for liner service between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies. In 1940 she was converted into a troop ship. In 1941 she was sunk with great loss of life in the Battle of Greece.

RMS <i>Otranto</i> (1925)

RMS Otranto was an ocean liner that was built for the Orient Steam Navigation Company in 1925. The "RMS" prefix stands for Royal Mail Ship, as she carried overseas mail under a contract between Orient Line and Royal Mail. Otranto was in service until 1957, when she was sold for scrap.

SS <i>Cathay</i> (1924)

SS Cathay was a P&O passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1925 and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea in 1942. In the Second World War she was first an armed merchant cruiser and then a troop ship. In 1942 she took part in Operation Torch, and was sunk in a German air raid off Bougie, Algeria.

RMS <i>Asturias</i> (1925) Motor ship

RMS Asturias was a Royal Mail Lines ocean liner that was built in Belfast in 1925. She served in the Second World War as an armed merchant cruiser until she was crippled by a torpedo in 1943. She was out of action until 1948 when she returned to civilian service as an emigrant ship. She became a troop ship in 1954 and was scrapped in 1957.

SS <i>Queen of Bermuda</i>

SS Queen of Bermuda was a British turbo-electric ocean liner that belonged to Furness, Withy & Co Ltd. Its Furness Bermuda Line subsidiary operated her between New York and Bermuda before and after the Second World War. During the war she served as first an armed merchant cruiser and then as a troop ship.

HMS <i>Dunvegan Castle</i> Cruiser of the Royal Navy

HMS Dunvegan Castle was a UK ocean liner that was converted into an armed merchant cruiser (AMC) in the Second World War. Harland and Wolff built her and her sister ship Dunnottar Castle in Belfast in 1936.

MV <i>Waimarama</i>

MV Waimarama was a UK refrigerated cargo liner. She was built in Northern Ireland for Shaw, Savill & Albion Line and launched in 1938. She carried perishable foods, particularly meat, from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.

References

  1. ↑ Swiggum, Susan; Kohli, Marjorie (17 October 2010). "Blue Funnel Line". TheShipsList. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Steamers & Motorships". Lloyd's Register (PDF). Vol. II. London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 1 November 2020– via Plimsoll Ship Data.
  3. 1 2 3 "Hector". Scottish Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  4. 1 2 Talbot-Booth 1936, p. 366.
  5. ↑ Talbot-Booth 1936, p. 472.
  6. ↑ Harnack 1930, p. 331.
  7. ↑ "Steamers & Motorships". Lloyd's Register (PDF). Vol. II. London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. Retrieved 1 November 2020– via Plimsoll Ship Data.
  8. 1 2 3 "Alfred Holt & Co, Blue Funnel Line, page 14". The Red Duster. The Merchant Navy Association. Archived from the original on 7 April 2008.
  9. ↑ "BR 6in 45cal BL Mk XII". NavHist. Flixco Pty Limited. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "BR 3in 45cal 12pdr 20cwt QF Mk I To IV". NavHist. Flixco Pty Limited. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMS Hector (F 45)". Uboat.net.
  12. ↑ Shores, Cull & Izawa 1993 , pp. 395, 405
  13. ↑ Shores, Cull & Izawa 1993 , p. 406

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.