SS Montrose

SS "Montrose" was a transatlantic ocean liner for Elder, Dempster & Company and the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. She is most notable as the vessel on which Hawley Crippen and his lover, Ethel La Neve, fled England after Crippen's wife was murdered.

History

"Montrose", a convert|444.3|ft|m|adj=on ocean liner with a GT|5,440|first=yes, was built by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co. of Middlesbrough and was launched on 17 June 1897 for Elder, Dempster & Company. Making her maiden voyage from Middlesbrough to Quebec and Montreal in September 1897, she began regular service from Avonmouth to Montreal the following month. On 14 March 1900, she began the first of eight voyages from Liverpool to Cape Town as a Boer War troopship.cite web | url = http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/descriptions/ShipsMM.html | title = Ship Descriptions - Mi to Mu | date = | accessdate = 2008-06-24 ]

Rebuilt in 1901 to GT|7,094 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, Quebec, and Montreal 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 GT|6,278.

"Montrose" was involved in a sinister affair in 1910. American physician Hawley Crippen and his lover, Ethel La Neve, had fled England after the circumstances around his wife's death were questioned. After a body was found in the basement of Crippen's North London residence, Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Walter Dew sought the couple for murder charges.cite news | title = Crippen hanged in London jail at dawn of day | work = The Atlanta Constitution | date = 1910-11-23 | pages = 1–2 ] One theory had the couple sailing from Dover on SS|Kroonland, but when inspected in New York on arrival, Crippen and Le Neve were not to be found. [cite news | title = Saw Crippen in train | work = The Washington Post | date = 1910-07-20 | page = 3 ] The fleeing couple had instead sailed on the "Montrose" from Antwerp on 20 July. Crippen, identified on "Montrose" after the vessel received a description of the pair via a wireless dispatch, was arrested, convicted of his wife's murder, and hanged. La Neve was acquitted.

A legend has grown that Crippen, when seeing Dew on the deck of the "Montrose" cursed Captain Henry George Kendall for betraying him and Miss La Neve.Fact|date=August 2008 Kendall was later the Captain of the RMS|Empress of Ireland which was sunk in a collision in the St. Lawrence River in May 1914 with the loss of 1,012 lives. Kendall survived.

The following year, "Montrose" was rebuilt a final time, this time to GT|7,207. On 28 October 1914, "Montrose" was sold to the Admiralty for use as a blockship at Dover. Breaking loose from her moorings during a gale, the liner drifted out and wrecked on Goodwin Sands.

Notes