HMCS Prince David

HMCS Prince David
History
Canada
Name:	Prince David
Builder:	Cammell Laird & Co., Birkenhead, UK Conversion to AMC by Halifax Shipyards Limited., Halifax, Nova Scotia Conversion to LSI(M) by Burrard Dry Dock Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia
Laid down:	1929
Launched:	1930
Commissioned:	28 December 1940
Renamed:	Charlton Monarch (1946)
Struck:	11 June 1945
Identification:	Pennant number: F89
Honours and awards:	Atlantic 1941 Aleutians 1942 Aegean 1943–44 Normandy 1944 South France 1944
Fate:	Broken up 1951
General characteristics
Displacement:	5,736 tonnes
Length:	385 ft (117.3 m)
Beam:	57 ft (17.4 m)
Draught:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Installed power:	6 × Yarrow water-tube five-drum super-heat main boilers 2 × Scottish marine three-burner auxiliary boilers 19,300 ihp (14,392 kW) at 267 rpm.
Propulsion:	Twin screw Parsons reaction three-stage single-reduction geared turbines;
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Range:	3,500 nmi (6,482 km; 4,028 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement:	31 officers, 383 ratings
Armament:	4 × 6-inch/45 cal Mk VII guns in 2 single mounts forward and 2 aft (as AMC). 4 × 4-inch Mk XVI HA/LA guns in two twin mounts (as LSI M). 2 × 3-inch HA guns in two single mounts (as AMC). 2 × 40-mm Bofors guns (as LSI M). several Vickers .303 twin MGs. 10 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon Mk 5 in single mounts after Apr.20/42 refit. 2 stern-mounted depth charge chutes for Mk. VIII 300 lb.canister depth charges (as AMC).

HMCS Prince David was one of three Canadian National Steamships passenger liners that were converted for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), first to armed merchant cruisers at the beginning of Second World War, then infantry landing ships (medium) or anti-aircraft escort. For three years, they were the largest ships in the RCN.

The three 'Prince' ships were a unique part of Canada's war effort: taken out of mercantile service, converted to armed merchant cruisers, two of them (Prince David and Prince Henry) were reconfigured to infantry landing ships and one (Prince Robert) to an anti-aircraft escort; all three ships were paid off at war's end and then returned to mercantile service.

In the early part of the war, as armed merchant cruisers equipped with antique guns and very little armour, Prince David and her sisters were sent to hunt enemy submarines and surface ships, tasks better suited to warships. As the needs of the RCN changed, so were the 'Prince' ships able to adapt to new roles. Their flexibility offered the RCN greater scope and balance in its operations. They did not function as did the bulk of the Canadian fleet: no rushing back and forth across the ocean, cold and damp, chained to 50 degrees North. Prince David and her sisters, each with two separate employments, roamed most of the navigable world forming a little navy apart.

Three ships, Prince David, Prince Henry and Prince Robert were ordered in 1929 from Cammell Laird & Co. by the Canadian National Railways subsidiary CN Steamships to operate as small luxury liners on the West Coast of Canada. The specifications for all three ships had been identical: three decks, three funnels, cruiser sterns and accommodation for 300 passengers. Each had cost $2,000,000 at completion and with a speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph), they were among the fastest ships in the Canadian registry.Prince David arrived on the West Coast in the summer of 1930 and was put on the Vancouver – Victoria – Seattle daily service. However, the decline in trade due to the Depression had made it impractical for all three ships to operate in British Columbia waters.

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Wikipedia