 HMCS Prince David
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Canada | |
| Name | Prince David |
| Builder |
|
| Laid down | 1929 |
| Launched | 12 February 1930 |
| Commissioned | 28 December 1940 |
| Renamed | Charlton Monarch (1946) |
| Stricken | 11 June 1945 |
| Identification | Pennant number: F89 |
| Honours and awards |
|
| Fate | Broken up 1951 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 6,892 GRT |
| Displacement | 5,736 tonnes |
| Length | 385 ft (117.3 m) |
| Beam | 57 ft (17.4 m) |
| Draught | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| 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 |
|
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.[2]
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.[3]
- ^ CFHQ Report Number 5, 1965
- ^ MacLeod, M. K. The Prince Ships, 1940–1945, Canadian Forces Headquarters (CFHQ) Reports 31 Oct 1965, National Defence Directorate of History and Heritage, page 246.
- ^ MacLeod, M. K. The Prince Ships, 1940–1945, Canadian Forces Headquarters (CFHQ) Reports 31 Oct 1965, National Defence Directorate of History and Heritage, pages 245/249.