HMS Port Quebec was a British motor ship that was designed and launched in 1939 to be the refrigerated cargo shipPort 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.
Port Quebec's length overall was 468.0 ft (142.6 m)[2] and her registered length was 451.0 ft (137.5 m). Her beam was 59.7 ft (18.2 m) and her depth was 25.2 ft (7.7 m). Her tonnages were 5,936 GRT and 3,452 NRT.[4]
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.[8]Port Quebec and other members of the 1st Minelaying Squadron laid mines in the Northern Barrage. The barrage was completed in September 1943.[9]
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.[7] On 1 January 1945 the Admiralty bought the ship from her owners.[1]
Merchant service
On 24 October 1947 the Admiralty sold the ship back to Port Line, who restored her original name Port Quebec.[1] She was completed as a cargo ship, with only part of her hold space refrigerated. In 1948 her refrigerated capacity was recorded as only 19,084 cubic feet (540 m3).[10] By 1950 this had been doubled to 37,102 cubic feet (1,051 m3),[11] but it was still only a small part of her total hold space.
Register Book. Vol. II M–Z. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1951 – via Internet Archive.
Register Book. Vol. I Register of Ships. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1959 – via Internet Archive.
Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-59114-119-2.