HMS Forfar was formerly the liner SS Montrose, requisitioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser in 1939 and sunk in 1940.
She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd in Glasgow, being launched in 1920 as passenger ship Montrose(II) of Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. In 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an armed merchant cruiser and renamed HMS Forfar.
On 2 December 1940 Forfar, on the Northern Patrol, was torpedoed and sunk by U-99 under the command of Otto Kretschmer. Forfar was en route to join convoy OB 251 and was about 500 miles west of Ireland. 36 officers, including her Captain Norman Arthur Cyril Hardy, and 136 men lost their lives. The survivors were rescued by the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, the British destroyer HMS Viscount and the British cargo steamer Dursley.
Rebuilt to 7,094GT in 1901, she was sold to the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company in 1903, and outfitted for 70 second-class and 1,800 third-class passengers. She began her service between Liverpool and Montreal, Quebec on 20 April 1903. She moved to service from London to Antwerp and Saint John, New Brunswick, in April 1904, and from London to Antwerp, Quebec, and Montreal the following month. Rebuilt again in 1905, the liner was increased to 6,278GT.
Susanne is running out of here She’s got one of her crazy ideas It’s not too much to ask she said Just enough to get ahead She says her days are narrowing It’s almost so she can’t fit it She’s going to leave it all behind Go out and make it this time Susanne thinks living is easy for some Waits for the day when her turn will come She doesn’t see her time’s already run Susanne, oh Susanne Joy is slipping right out of the hand Of day dreaming sad smiled Susanne
It wasn’t that there was anything particularly original about the doctor’s motives or methods ... Such was the media hoopla surrounding the case that the sharp-eyed captain of the SS Montrose quickly spotted the runaway lovers among his passengers ... ....
When Cora's friends alerted the police about his wife's disappearance, Crippen and Ethel fled to Canada disguised as father and son on the SS Montrose... The captain of the Montrose thought he recognised ...
At the booking office he was told that the SS Montrose would be sailing in five days’ time ... It was a small miracle that they even made it up the gangway of the Montrose without being stopped ... Fortunately, the Montrose was among them.
