Name SS Montrose Sponsored by Lady Raeburn | Launched 14 December 1920 Length 167 m | |
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Owner Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Operator Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Fate Requisitioned by Royal Navy 4 September 1939 Builder Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company | ||
HMS Forfar (F30), formerly the ocean liner SS Montrose, was an armed merchant cruiser commissioned into Royal Navy service in 1939 and sunk in 1940.
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SS Montrose
The ship was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Glasgow, Scotland, as the passenger ship SS Montrose for the Canadian Pacific Steamships Company and was launched on 14 December 1920, sponsored by Lady Raeburn, the wife of the Director-General of the British Ministry of Shipping.
Montrose ran aground on 7 August 1925 in the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. She was refloated on 10 August 1925 and drydocked for repairs to her rudder and port propeller.
On 31 July 1928, Montrose collided with the British cargo ship Rose Castle in the Saint Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada; Rose Castle beached herself to avoid sinking, but was refloated on 3 August 1928.
HMS Forfar
On 4 September 1939, Montrose was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for World War II service with the Royal Navy and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. Her conversion was completed on 6 November 1939 and she was commissioned into Royal Navy service as HMS Forfar (F30).
On 2 December 1940 Forfar, operating on the Northern Patrol, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine German submarine U-99 under the command of Otto Kretschmer. Forfar was en route to join convoy OB 251 and was about 500 nautical miles west of Ireland. Thirty-six officers, including her commanding officer, Norman Arthur Cyril Hardy, and 136 men lost their lives. The survivors were rescued by the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, the British destroyer HMS Viscount , and the British cargo steamer Dursley.