HMS Port Quebec

HMS Port Quebec was a British motor ship that was designed and launched in 1939 to be the refrigerated cargo ship Port Quebec, but completed in 1940 as an auxuiliary minelayer. In 1944 she was converted into an aircraft component repair ship and renamed HMS Deer Sound. In 1947 she was returned to her owner, Port Line, and completed as a cargo ship. She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1968.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Quebec.

HMS Port Quebec under way
History
United Kingdom
Name
  • 1939: Port Quebec
  • 1944: Deer Sound
  • 1947: Port Quebec
Namesake1940, 1947: Port of Quebec
Owner
Operator
Port of registryUnited Kingdom London
BuilderJL Thompson & Sons, North Sands
Cost£207,783
Yard number593
Launched17 August 1939
CompletedNovember 1939
Commissioned1940
Decommissioned1947
Identification
FateScrapped, December 1968
General characteristics
Type
Tonnage5,936 GRT, 3,452 NRT
Length
  • 468.0 ft (142.6 m) overall
  • 451.0 ft (137.5 m) registered
Beam59.7 ft (18.2 m)
Depth25.2 ft (7.7 m)
Decks2
Installed power1,076 NHP
Propulsion
Speed14.5 knots (27 km/h)
Capacity
  • 1948: 19,084 cubic feet (540 m3) refrigerated
  • 1949: 37,102 cubic feet (1,051 m3) refrigerated
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament

Building and identification

J.L. Thompson and Sons built the ship as yard number 593 at their North Sands shipyard in Sunderland on the River Wear. She was launched on 17 August 1939 and completed that November[1] at a cost of £207,783. She was named Port Quebec because Port Line planned to use her on its Montreal, Australia and New Zealand (MANZ) service,[2] which was a joint operation with Ellerman & Bucknall and the New Zealand Shipping Company.[3]

Port Quebec's length overall was 468.0 ft (142.6 m)[2] and her registered length was 451.0 ft (137.5 m). Her beam was 59.7 ft (18.2 m) and her depth was 25.2 ft (7.7 m). Her tonnages were 5,936 GRT and 3,452 NRT.[4]

She had a single screw, driven by a five-cylinder, single-acting two-stroke diesel engine built by William Doxford & Sons of Sunderland. It was rated at 1,076 NHP[4] and gave her a speed of 14.5 knots (27 km/h).[5]

In 1940 Port Line registered Port Quebec in London. Her UK official number was 167532 and her wireless telegraph call sign was GWGQ.[6]

In November 1939 the Admiralty requisitioned Port Quebec and had her completed as an auxiliary minelayer.[1] She was armed with two QF 4-inch naval gun Mk V, two QF 2-pounder naval guns, 13 Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, and minelaying equipment.[7] She had capacity for 550 mines.[5]

In 1940 she was commissioned as HMS Port Quebec, with the pennant number M59. By mid-August she had joined the 1st Minelaying Squadron at Kyle of Lochalsh (port ZA) along with four other auxiliary minesweepers, plus an escort of Royal Navy destroyers.[8] Port Quebec and other members of the 1st Minelaying Squadron laid mines in the Northern Barrage. The barrage was completed in September 1943.[9]

In 1944 Port Quebec was converted into an aircraft component repair ship. She was renamed HMS Deer Sound, and her pennant number was changed to F99.[7] On 1 January 1945 the Admiralty bought the ship from her owners.[1]

Merchant service
Port Quebec in Port Line service

On 24 October 1947 the Admiralty sold the ship back to Port Line, who restored her original name Port Quebec.[1] She was completed as a cargo ship, with only part of her hold space refrigerated. In 1948 her refrigerated capacity was recorded as only 19,084 cubic feet (540 m3).[10] By 1950 this had been doubled to 37,102 cubic feet (1,051 m3),[11] but it was still only a small part of her total hold space.

By 1947 Port Quebec's navigation equipment included wireless direction finding, an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass.[12] radar had been added by 1951,[13] and a position fixing device and radiotelephone by 1959.[14]

In December 1968 Port Quebec arrived in Kaohsiung in Taiwan to be scrapped.[1]

References
  1. "Port Quebec". Wear Built Ships. Shipping and Shipbuilding Research Trust. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  2. Haws 1991, p. 68.
  3. Haws 1991, p. 56.
  4. Lloyd's Register 1940, POR.
  5. Mason, Geoffrey (5 June 2011). "Royal Navy minelaying operations, Part 1 of 2". World War 2 at Sea. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  6. Mercantile Navy List 1947, p. 812.
  7. Lenton & Colledge 1968, pp. 306, 308, 348.
  8. Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMS Port Quebec (M 59)". uboat.net. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  9. Mason, Geoffrey (5 June 2011). "HMS Agamemnon – mercantile conversion, Auxiliary Minelayer". Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  10. Lloyd's Register 1948.
  11. Lloyd's Register 1949.
  12. Lloyd's Register 1947, POR.
  13. Lloyd's Register 1951, POR.
  14. Lloyd's Register 1959, Port Launceston.

Bibliography
  • Haws, Duncan (1991). Port Line with Corry, Royden, Tyser and Milburn. Merchant Fleets. Vol. 21. Hereford: Travel Creatours Ltd Publications. ISBN 0-946378-18-5.
  • Lenton, HT; Colledge, JJ (1968). British and Dominion Warships of World War II. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co.
  • Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). Vol. II.–Steamers and Motorships of 300 Tons, Trawlers, Tugs, Dredgers, Etc. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1940 – via Southampton City Council.
  • Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Vol. Steamers and Motorships of 300 Tons Gross and Over. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1947 – via Internet Archive.
  • Mercantile Navy List. London. 1947 – via Crew List Index Project.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • "List of ships fitted with refrigerating appliances". Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Vol. II. M–Z. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1948 – via Internet Archive.
  • "List of ships fitted with refrigerating appliances". Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Vol. II. M–Z. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1949 – via Internet Archive.
  • Register Book. Vol. II M–Z. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1951 – via Internet Archive.
  • Register Book. Vol. I Register of Ships. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1959 – via Internet Archive.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
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