HMS Port Quebec

HMS Port Quebec was a British motor ship that was designed and launched in 1939 to be the refrigerated cargo ship Port Quebec, but completed in 1940 as an auxuiliary minelayer. In 1944 she was converted into an aircraft component repair ship and renamed HMS Deer Sound. In 1947 she was returned to her owner, Port Line, and completed as a cargo ship. She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1968.

Building and identification
J.L. Thompson and Sons built the ship as yard number 593 at their North Sands shipyard in Sunderland on the River Wear. She was launched on 17 August 1939 and completed that November at a cost of £207,783. She was named Port Quebec because Port Line planned to use her on its Montreal, Australia and New Zealand (MANZ) service, which was a joint operation with Ellerman & Bucknall and the New Zealand Shipping Company.

Port Quebec's length overall was 468.0 ft and her registered length was 451.0 ft. Her beam was 59.7 ft and her depth was 25.2 ft. Her tonnages were and.

She had a single screw, driven by a five-cylinder, single-acting two-stroke diesel engine built by William Doxford & Sons of Sunderland. It was rated at 1,076 NHP and gave her a speed of 14.5 kn.

In 1940 Port Line registered Port Quebec in London. Her UK official number was 167532 and her wireless telegraph call sign was GWGQ.

Naval service
In November 1939 the Admiralty requisitioned Port Quebec and had her completed as an auxiliary minelayer. She was armed with two QF 4-inch naval gun Mk V, two QF 2-pounder naval guns, 13 Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, and minelaying equipment. She had capacity for 550 mines.

In 1940 she was commissioned as HMS Port Quebec, with the pennant number M59. By mid-August she had joined the 1st Minelaying Squadron at Kyle of Lochalsh (port ZA) along with four other auxiliary minesweepers, plus an escort of Royal Navy destroyers. Port Quebec and other members of the 1st Minelaying Squadron laid mines in the Northern Barrage. The barrage was completed in September 1943.

In 1944 Port Quebec was converted into an aircraft component repair ship. She was renamed HMS Deer Sound, and her pennant number was changed to F99. On 1 January 1945 the Admiralty bought the ship from her owners.

Merchant service
On 24 October 1947 the Admiralty sold the ship back to Port Line, who restored her original name Port Quebec. She was completed as a cargo ship, with only part of her hold space refrigerated. In 1948 her refrigerated capacity was recorded as only 19084 cuft. By 1950 this had been doubled to 37102 cuft, but it was still only a small part of her total hold space.

By 1947 Port Quebec's navigation equipment included wireless direction finding, an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass. radar had been added by 1951, and a position fixing device and radiotelephone by 1959.

In December 1968 Port Quebec arrived in Kaohsiung in Taiwan to be scrapped.