HMS Hilary (1940)

HMS Hilary at Greenock in the 1940s
History
United Kingdom
Name	Hilary
Namesake	Hilary of Poitiers
Owner	Booth Steamship Co
Operator	Booth Steamship Co 1931–40, 42–43, 45–56 Royal Navy 1940–42, 43–45 Elder, Dempster Line
Port of registry	Liverpool
Route	Liverpool – Manaus 1931–40, 1946–56, 1957–59 Liverpool – Lagos 1956
Builder	Cammell, Laird & Co
Cost	£219,000
Yard number	975
Launched	17 April 1931
Completed	August 1931
Refit	1940, 1942, 1946, 1956
Identification	UK official number 162350 code letters LHFD (until 1933) call sign GQVM (1934 onward) Pennant number F22 (1941–42)
Fate	Scrapped 1959
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	7,403 GRT, 4,350 NRT
Length	424.2 ft (129.3 m)
Beam	56.2 ft (17.1 m)
Draught	24 ft 7+3⁄4 in (7.51 m)
Depth	34.2 ft (10.4 m)
Decks	3
Installed power	1,033 NHP
Propulsion	triple-expansion steam engine low-pressure steam turbine single screw
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h)
Capacity	passengers: 1931: 80 first class, 250 third class 1943: 378 troops 1946: 93 first class, 138 third class 1956: 86 first class, 122 tourist class
Crew	313 (as landing ship, infantry)
Sensors and processing systems	as built: wireless direction finding by 1935: echo sounding device
Armament	2 × 6-inch guns 1 × 12-pounder gun 4 × anti-aircraft machine guns

SS Hilary was a British steam passenger liner that was built in 1931 and scrapped in 1959. She spent much of her career on a scheduled service between Liverpool in England and Manaus in Brazil.

In the Second World War the ship spent two periods in the Royal Navy as HMS Hilary. The first was in 1941–42 as an ocean boarding vessel. The second was in 1943–45 as a landing ship, infantry and headquarters ship.

Hilary belonged to the Booth Steamship Company throughout her career. She was the largest ship Booth ever owned, both in length and in tonnage. She also had the most powerful engines of any Booth ship.

This was the third Booth ship to be called Hilary. The first was a cargo ship that was built in 1889 as Red Sea, bought by Booth and renamed Hilary in 1892, sold in 1911 to Japanese buyers and renamed Misumi Maru.^[1] The second was a passenger and cargo ship that was built in 1908, requisitioned in 1914 as the armed merchant cruiser HMS Hilary, and sunk in 1917 by a u-boat.^[2]