Name SS Hilary In service 8 August 1908 Launched 31 May 1908 Draft 8.28 m | Cost £124,000 Name HMS Hilary Length 128 m Builder Dundee | |
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Owner Booth Steamship Company Fate Requisitioned by Royal Navy in 1914 | ||
HMS Hilary was a combined passenger/cargo vessel and originally named SS Hilary. During the First World War, it was commissioned into the Royal Navy and in 1917 was sunk by a German submarine.
The ship was constructed in 1908 for the Booth Steamship Company to operate on the Europe/South America route, and carrying 200 first-class and 300 third-class passengers.
On the outbreak of the First World War, the ship was requisitioned by the Royal Navy for conversion to an armed merchant cruiser and assigned to the 10th Cruiser Squadron. She formed part of the Northern Patrol blockading trade to Germany. It was torpedoed and sunk 40 nmi (74 km) west of Lerwick, Shetland Islands by the German submarine U-88 whilst Hilary was leaving her patrol area to refuel at the naval base at Scapa Flow.
A sighting of a sea serpent by Hilary was published in Nature in 1930. The Captain and several officers and men witnessed the event: