HMS ''Hector'' was a UK

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

and

refrigerated Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is ejected to a place of higher temperature).IIR International Dictionary of ...

cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...

launched in 1924. She was the fourth of six civilian ships to bear the name. In the Second World War ''Hector'' was converted into an

armed merchant cruiser An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...

. She was the eleventh HMS ''Hector'' in the history of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. A

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

air raid sank her in

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in 1942. In 1946 she was raised and scrapped.

Building

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde. In its time in Greenock, Scotts built over 1,250 ships. History John Scott f ...

built ''Hector'' in

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

, Scotland.

Isobel Cripps Dame Isobel Cripps, Order of the British Empire, GBE (''née'' Swithinbank; 25 January 1891 – 11 April 1979), also known as Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps, was a British overseas aid organiser and the wife of the Honourable Stafford Cripps ...

launched her on 18 June 1924 and she was completed on 16 September. ''Hector'' was the third of a set of four

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

s built for

Alfred Holt and Company Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK's larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significan ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, who owned

Blue Funnel Line Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK's larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significan ...

and other shipping lines including the Ocean Steam Ship Company. Her sisters were and launched in 1923, and launched in 1924. All were named after characters in

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

's ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

''. ''Hector'' was long, beam and had a depth of . She had a

counter stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

, slightly raked

stem Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

, one funnel and two masts. She had accommodation for first class passengers only. ''Hector''s

tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on '' tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a cal ...

s were and . She had steam turbines driving twin

screws A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...

via single-reduction gearing, which gave her a service speed of . By 1934 ''Patroclus'' had been fitted with wireless

direction finding Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a naturall ...

equipment.

Civilian service

Scotts delivered ''Hector'' to Blue Funnel on 23 September 1924 and she made her maiden voyage from

to the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

on 24 September 1924. This was the regular route for ''Hector'' and her three sisters.

Naval service

On 27 August 1939, a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War, the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Tra ...

requisitioned ''Hector'' and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Her primary armament was six

BL 6-inch Mk XII naval gun The British ordnance terms#BL, BL 6-inch Mark XII naval gun was a British 45 Caliber#Caliber as measurement of length, calibre naval artillery, naval gun which was mounted as primary armament on light cruisers and secondary armament on dreadnoug ...

s and her secondary armament included two

QF 3-inch 20 cwt The QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun became the standard anti-aircraft gun used in the home defence of the United Kingdom against German Zeppelins airships and bombers and on the Western Front in World War I. It was also common on British warsh ...

anti-aircraft guns. Her conversion was completed on 20 December 1939. ''Hector'' served on the New Zealand Station from January to July 1940 and the

East Indies Station The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Even in official documents, the term ''East Indies Station'' wa ...

from August 1940 until February 1942. In March 1942 she was transferred to the

Eastern Fleet Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

Loss

''Hector'' was

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

ed in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

in Ceylon to prepare for decommissioning. On 5 April 1942 Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked the port in the

Easter Sunday Raid The Easter Sunday Raid was an air attack on Colombo, Ceylon during the Indian Ocean raid by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 5 April 1942. The Japanese objective was to destroy the Ceylon-based British Eastern Fleet ...

. The Japanese force had hoped to catch remnants of the Eastern Fleet in harbour, but most of the fleet had left earlier. Japanese aircraft attacked the few targets they could find, one of which was ''Hector''. She was hit by five bombs that set her on fire, and after several hours she sank. The air raid also sank the destroyer in the harbour. The

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

s and were sunk at sea later that day. The Admiralty returned the wreck of ''Hector'' to the Ocean Steamship Company on 20 April 1942, but because of the war she was not refloated until 1946. She was beached north of Colombo for assessment. She was judged to be beyond economical repair, and was sold for scrap.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hector 1924 ships World War II Auxiliary cruisers of the Royal Navy Cruisers sunk by aircraft Maritime incidents in April 1942 Ocean liners of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde Ships of the Blue Funnel Line Ships sunk by Japanese aircraft Steamships of the United Kingdom World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom