SS Montrose (1897)
SS "Montrose" was a transatlantic ocean liner for Elder, Dempster & Company and the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. She was the vessel on which Hawley Crippen and his lover, Ethel Le Neve, fled England after Crippen's wife was murdered. Early career. A ocean liner with a , "Montrose" 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. Rebuilt to 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 . Escape of Dr. Crippen. "Montrose" was involved in a sinister  affair in 1910. American physician Hawley Crippen and his lover, Ethel Le 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. One theory had the couple sailing from Dover on , but when inspected in New York on arrival, Crippen and Le Neve were not to be found. 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. The following year, "Montrose" was rebuilt a final time, this time to . Wartime career. At the start of the First World War "Montrose" and her near-sister "Montreal" were docked at Antwerp as the German army was advancing on the city. The "Montrose" was seaworthy, but without coal, while the "Montreal" had coal, but inoperable engines. Captain H. G. Kendall, who had been in command of the "Montrose" in 1910 but had ceased working as a ship 's master following his involvement in the "Empress of Ireland" sinking, was working in the port as the CPR's marine superintendent. He arranged for coal to be transferred from the "Montreal", filled both vessels with Belgian refugees and used the "Montrose" to tow the "Montreal" to England. Sinking. 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 was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands on 20 December 1914.