HMS Montclare (F85)
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: |
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| Owner: | Canadian Pacific Steamships |
| Builder: | John Brown & Co. |
| Launched: | Sunday, 18 December 1921 |
 United Kingdom
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| Commissioned: | 2 June 1942 |
| Decommissioned: | October 1954 |
| Reclassified: | 1942 Destroyer Depot Ship, 1944 Submarine Depot Ship |
| Fate: | Scrapped, Inverkeithing, 2 February 1958 by Thos W Ward |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 16314 Gross Register Tonnage and 21550 tons when commissioned |
| Length: | 570 ft (170 m) |
| Beam: | 70 ft (21 m) |
| Draft: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | As built, 6 x steam turbine 13500 shp, double reduction geared. Re-engined 1929 with single reduction geared turbines by Harland & Wolff, Belfast. |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Armament: | As a submarine depot ship 4x 4" AA guns, 42x 2pdr AA and 19x 20 mm AA. |
Montclare was a passenger ship built by the John Brown and Company on Clydebank for the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Montreal. It was later purchased by the Royal Navy during World War II.
On 18 August 1922 Montclare left Liverpool, on her maiden voyage, bound for Quebec and Montreal, R. G. Latta commanding. She served in the European and North Atlantic passenger trade. Whilst heading for Greenock on 22 March 1931, she ran aground on Little Cumbrae with a number of passengers aboard. She was later refloated and was repaired in Liverpool.
On 28 August 1939 the Montclare was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser being commissioned as such in October 1939. On 2 June 1942 she was sold to the Admiralty. Now HMS Montclare she was converted to a Destroyer Depot Ship, completing in 1944, She sailed from the Clyde on 1 March 1945 in convoy via the Suez Canal, arriving in Sydney on 20 April 1945. She then sailed to Manus in the Admiralty Islands to support the destroyers of Task Force 57 on Operation Iceberg - the conquest of Okinawa and Sakishma Gunto islands. Rear Admiral DB Fisher CB CBE then took her as his flagship for the Pacific Fleet Train (Task Force 112) wwith the British Pacific Fleet until the war finished. She remained mainly in Manus until 4 September 1945 when she sailed to Hong Kong arriving on the 9th for the re-occupation of Hong Kong. She finally left Hong Kong on 3 January 1946, her crew having played a vital part in getting the Colony back on its feet again. She arrived back in Portsmouth on 21 February 1946, and was reduced to Reserve status prior to conversion to Submarine Depot Ship, in which role she spent a lot of time at Rothesay. In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
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