Canadian Military History Volume 4 Issue 1 Article 5 1995 HMCS Prince Robert: The Career of an Armed Merchant Cruiser C.R. Shelley Royal Military College of Canada Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Shelley, C.R. "HMCS Prince Robert: The Career of an Armed Merchant Cruiser." Canadian Military History 4, 1 (1995) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Shelley: HMCS <em>Prince Robert</em>: The Career of an Armed Merchant Crui HMCS Prince Robert: The Career of an Ar:med Merchant Cruiser C.R. Shelley Introduction The Genesis of Canada's AMCs MCS Prince Robert was one of three identical MCS Prince Robert was classed as an armed H ships used as armed merchant cruisers H merchant cruiser (AMC). An AMC is simply (AMCs) by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during a fast liner that is requisitioned and armed by the Second World War. On the eve of war, Canada the government in wartime for naval service, had but six modern destroyers, with no prospect manned by a naval crew. Its usual duties are to of additional ships for some time. To fill the patrol trade routes, convoy merchant ships, and desperate need for escorts, the Naval Service intercept warships that may be engaged in clutched at Prince Robert and her two sister liners commerce-raiding against friendly shipping. The as an expedient in a time of crisis; yet, by war's conversion of liners to AMCs frees regular end she would be one of the most sophisticated cruisers to support fleet actions and to patrol the ships of the RCN. Much like the citizen sailors more dangerous shipping lanes, in that order of who manned her, she signed up for the duration, priority. An AMC is a cheap way of rapidly saw service worldwide, and returned to civilian increasing the number of surface units available life much changed by the experience of war. to the navy as escorts. The career of the Prince Robert shows quite Long before Canada had a navy the Admiralty effectively the changing roles of the AMC during saw her as a possible source of AMCs. At the First the Second World War and the vital niche that Colonial Conference, 4 April to 9 May 1887, Sir these ships filled. This account of the Prince Sandford Fleming, eager to promote the strategic Robert has three main objects: to detail the value of the new Canadian Pacific Railway, offered genesis of the AMC in its Canadian context; to that, "any fast mail steamers which the Canadian explain the roles and missions that AMCs were Pacific might in future operate across the Pacific expected to fulfil; and, to show how the Prince would be available for use as armed merchant Robert, as an example of her class, fulfllled them. cruisers in time of war."1 At the 1909 Imperial Further, the story of the Prince Robert's war Conference, L. P. Brodeur, Minister of Marine and service, in Canadian waters and abroad, sheds Fisheries, proposed the conversion of merchant light on the policies of the Naval Service, how the ships to AMCs as an expedient for local defence. RCN handled the technical challenges of the The Admiralty rejected the idea, possibly in the widening war, and how it cooperated with allied hope that Canada would create a real navy. navies. For the Prince Robert was unique among However, in 1911, Sir William White, a former RCN ships: after her initial conversion, she was Director of Naval Construction for the Admiralty, radically refitted twice; her mission changed (1885-1902) made an unofficial visit to the Prime totally in the middle of the war; and, she was the Minister, Sir Robert Borden. He discussed naval most travelled of any RCN vessel. If for no other policy with Borden and suggested that Canada reason, these facts make her noteworthy. could contribute to the common defence by subsidizing suitable large mail steamers of speeds 47 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1995 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 4 [1995], Iss. 1, Art. 5 HMCS Prince Robert. in the Georgia Strait, shortly after her 1943 refit. (NAC PA 147131) greater than 18 knots for use as AMCs during a Not surprisingly, the issue of AMCs surfaced war. Subsidization would permit the government again during the interwar period. Commerce to approve the plans before the ships were built, raiders, such as the German cruiser Emden, had to allow for the incorporation of a stiffened met with some success during the Great War, and structure for mounting the guns. These ships the Admiralty assumed that such a threat would would protect Canadian commerce and trade recur in any future conflict. In 1927 the Admiralty routes while the Royal Navy husbanded cruisers requested the Under Secretary of State for the for the inevitable large fleet actions with Germany. 2 Dominions to gain Canada's agreement for the The scheme resembled today's American Civil pre-positioning of guns and other stores in Reserve Air Fleet, which subsidizes a number of Canada sufficient to arm four AMCs on the west civilian jumbo-jets with large cargo-loading doors coast. Their proposed employment was "to and stiff floors that can accommodate outsize prevent American contraband trade with Japan," military cargo in times of need. in the event of a war between the Empire and Japan. 5 Similar proposals were made to Australia Although Borden seems to have been warm and New Zealand. Pre-positioning would give the to the idea, and even mentioned it in a cable to Dominions the capability to press AMCs into the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, service long before a similarly converted ship, on 22 March 1913, the endeavour collapsed with dispatched from Britain, could arrive on station.6 the failure of the Naval Aid Bill in the Senate. 3 Canada accepted the proposal, which cost very Nonetheless, the Admiralty did arm three little, (storage only) and over a ten year period Canadian Pacific liners, the Empress ofAsia, the the Admiralty laid down the appropriate arms Empress of Japan, and the Empress of Russia and equipment. 7 as AMCs during the Great War. 4 48 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol4/iss1/5 2 Shelley: HMCS <em>Prince Robert</em>: The Career of an Armed Merchant Crui By 1932 the Canadian government began to Esquimalt. The conversion was rapid, with HMS give some slight attention to the Naval Service, Letitia sailing on 25 November, and HMS and to the War Book, wherein some "suitable Rajputana sailing on 29 December. 13 In all, the government and privately owned vessels were Admiralty requisitioned 51 liners as AMCs, earmarked as auxiliaries," should the need arise. 8 representing 773,000 tons of the fmest passenger As the decade progressed, and the war clouds shipping in the British Empire. 14 All, save one, loomed darkly on the horizon, the government were large ships, in the 11,000 to 22,000 ton considered the question of Canada's naval defence range. 15 Conversion was straightforward. more seriously. In 1935, the Chief of the Naval Shipyards removed as much inflammable Staff, Commodore Percy Nelles, assessed the material as possible, and installed ballast, 6-inch naval threat to Canada for the Minister for Naval guns, and a rudimentary fire-control system. Services. Nelles foresaw possible raids on However, the result was a high-sided, fast rolling shipping by enemy AMCs, submarines, or gun-platform, from which accurate gunfire was possibly light cruisers, and he proposed a very difficult. 16 As the master of the liner SS minimum force of six modem destroyers as a Transylvania remarked after she was taken into defence. 9 However, the idea of converting RN service, "[a) merchantman must always be an Canadian ships into AMCs for the RCN, was not indifferent fighting ship, however gallant the men far from his mind. who man her. "17 Canadian plans for the Prince ships were The Prince Robert as an AMC more ambitious than a simple modification. The naval staffs plans called for removing the liners' he ships that had caught the eye of the Naval top three decks, fitting a light cruiser T Service were three ordered in 1929 by superstructure, and mounting four 6-inch guns Canadian National Steamships from the Cammell along the ships' centre-line. 18 As Canada owned Laird shipyards, Birkenhead, Scotland. CN neither the guns nor the equipment for the named them Prince Robert, Prince David, and conversion, Naval Service Headquarters (NSHQ) Prince Henry, not after royalty, but as a signalled the Admiralty proposing to draw guns counterpoint to Canadian Pacific's Princess fleet. from pre-positioned stocks. 19 The Admiralty Purchased at a cost of over $2,000,000 dollars agreed to the conversion of the ships in short in 1930, the Prince Robert was a small liner of order.20 By 3 September 1939, an Order-in­ 6,893 tons gross displacement, 385 feet in length. Council gave the Naval Service the authority to She was capable of 23 knots, but at a more sedate requisition ships, and on the 19th, the War 15 knots she had an endurance of 6, 000 miles. Appropriations Act approved $10,000,000 for the Her three decks made her a fairly high ship, and first shipbuilding programme.21 At first the Naval her cargo spaces, car storage and staircases Service had wanted to charter the ships, but as meant that she lacked the watertight integrity the scale of the modifications required became desirable in a ship of war.