As the Great Depression of 1929—39 was beginning, the shipping subsidiary of the Canadian National Railways, the Canadian National Steamships, ordered three identical passenger liners from the Cammell Laird works at Birkenhead, near the great maritime city of Liverpool.

The three were of a royal strain, being duly knighted Prince David, Prince Henry and Prince Robert, and were intended for luxury service on the Canadian west coast, operating out of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Alas, the Depression put paid to that concept and after brief service in those parts, two of the vessels were transferred to the Canadian Maritimes in the east, for service to Bermuda and the West Indies.

One of the vessels, however, soon paid homage to the guardians of Bermuda’s northern perimeter, as related in the following text by noted shipping historian, Piers Plowman, and marine artist, Stephen Card, for their book A Century of Passenger Liners to Bermuda.

“The two ships were placed on a regular cruise service to Bermuda from St John and Boston, berthing in St George’s, and it was planned the pair would operate to Bermuda for several months, with departures each Friday and Sunday.

“The first departure was taken by Prince Henry, which departed Boston on 25 February, followed on 27 February by Prince David, with 122 passengers on board.

“On the morning of Sunday, 13 March 1932, Prince David on its second cruise was approaching Bermuda in heavy rain causing poor visibility.

“Shortly before noon the Island hove into sight, and the officers on the bridge estimated their position from the radio direction finder, as they had done the first time the ship cruised to Bermuda.

“Unfortunately, only days previously the Bermuda radio direction equipment had been moved from its original position near St George’s to ‘Eagles Nest’ in Devonshire, but the captain of Prince David was either unaware of this, or forgot.

“The result was that, instead of following a course that would bring them safely to the entrance of the channel through the reef, the ship was several miles off course.

“At 12.40pm it struck one rock, went over it and then became firmly lodged on a second rock that formed part of the reef near North Rock.

“An SOS message was immediately sent, being picked up ashore, and also by Lady Somers, which was also approaching the Island from Boston.

“An hour after the ship went aground, the rain stopped, but a strong wind sprang up from the south west, which soon whipped up a heavy sea, preventing Lady Somers, or the tugs that had rushed to the scene from St George’s approaching the grounded ship.

“At first there seemed little danger, and passengers were served their lunch in the dining room as usual.

“During the afternoon Prince David began to sink by the stern, and as the tide began to fall, also began listing to starboard.

“This increased concern for the safety of the 84 passengers, resulting in them being placed in the lifeboats, along with some members of the crew, and transferred to Lady Somers.

“Eventually at low tide Prince David was listing at 45°, and the stern had disappeared beneath the water, only the captain and four officers remaining on board.

“The five officers remained with the ship throughout the next day, but rising seas on the evening of 14 March forced them to decide to abandon the ship too.

“A group of St George’s men, including some pilots, manned a small boat to rescue the officers. Battling strong squalls and heavy seas, the boat took three and a half hours to reach Prince David, at 2am on 15 March.

“By then the men on the stricken ship were numb with cold, and it was a major task to rescue them, but at last all five were safely on board the small boat.

“The voyage back to St George’s was as difficult as the outward trip, the small launch battling huge seas that threatened to swamp it at any moment. It was 5am before the boat finally tied up at Market Wharf.

“When the weather moderated, divers were sent out to examine the hull of the ship. They found much of the bottom plating at the forward end of the ship had been torn off, and it was awash to B Deck aft.

“It was thought the ship would be a total loss, but it was held firmly on the reef by the bow, and it was thought she might be saved.

“A salvage company from New York was contracted, and they brought equipment and tugs to the island. It was not until 2pm on 25 April that Prince David was finally refloated, and towed into Five Fathom Hole.”

After extensive repairs in Canada, Prince David returned to the Bermuda run for some months, but was ‘laid up’, or put out to pasture, for two years at anchor at Port Royal Bay, from April 1934.

After another brief period of service, the ship was laid up again, only to be converted as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, HMCS Prince David, for the Second World War, including convoy escort work out of the British North America and West Indies Station, headquartered here at the Dockyard.

No doubt, the Captain of the ship gave the guardians of Bermuda’s northern borders a suitably wide berth.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Director of the National Museum. Comments may be made to director@nmb.bm or 704-5480.