HMS Hector was an armed merchant cruiser of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. Initially built as a cargo liner

Cargo liner

A Cargo liner is a type of merchant ship which carried general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the nineteenth century, and eventually gave way to container ships and other more specialized carriers in the latter half of the twentieth...

, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was sunk in a Japanese

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

 air attack in 1942 and was later raised and scrapped.

Construction and civilian service

Hector was built in the interwar period by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :...

, of Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. She was launched on 18 June 1924, and delivered to her owners, the Ocean Steamship Co Ltd (A. Holt & Co)

Blue Funnel Line

Alfred Holt and Company, marketed as the Blue Funnel Line, was founded by Alfred Holt on 16 January 1866.The main operating subsidiary was the Ocean Steam Ship Company, which owned and operated the majority of the company's vessels....

 on 23 September 1924. The company registered her in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, and she made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

 on 24 September 1924. She served with the company for the next 15 years.

With the Royal Navy

Hector was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 27 August 1939, and they proceeded to refit her as an armed merchant cruiser. This process was completed on 20 December 1939. In January 1940 she was assigned to the New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 station, where she served until July that year. In August she moved to the East Indies

East Indies

East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...

 station, where she spent the next two years, until February 1942. She was then assigned to operate with the Eastern Fleet in March 1942.

She was drydocked in Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

 to prepare for decommissioning. Whilst in harbour with other ships, the port came under attack from Japanese carrier-based aircraft, as part of the Indian Ocean raid

Indian Ocean raid

The Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the Fast Carrier Strike Force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 31 March-10 April 1942 against Allied shipping and bases in the Indian Ocean. It was an early engagement of the Pacific campaign of World War II...

. Colombo was targeted on 5 April in the Easter Sunday Raid

Easter Sunday Raid

The Easter Sunday Raid was an air attack by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy against Colombo, Ceylon , on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942, during World War II. This attack was part of the Indian Ocean Raid, and was followed a few days later by a similar attack on Trincomalee...

. The Japanese force, led by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo

Chuichi Nagumo

was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and one time commander of the Kido Butai . He committed suicide during the Battle of Saipan.-Early life:...

, had hoped to catch the remnants of the Eastern Fleet in harbour. However, most of the fleet had left several days earlier. Japanese aircraft found only three targets in the harbour, and so proceeded to attack them. The Hector was hit by bombs and set on fire. She was abandoned and later sank. The Japanese also sank the destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 HMS Tenedos

HMS Tenedos (H04)

HMS Tenedos was an Admiralty 'S' class destroyer. Commissioned in 1919 she served throughout the period between the two World Wars.Laid down on the 6 December 1917, she was constructed by Hawthorn Leslie of Tyne, and was completed in 1918....

 in the harbour, before locating and sinking the cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

s HMS Cornwall

HMS Cornwall (56)

HMS Cornwall was a County class heavy cruiser of the Kent subclass built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. She was built at Devonport Dockyard .-History:...

 and HMS Dorsetshire

HMS Dorsetshire (40)

HMS Dorsetshire was a heavy cruiser of the County class of the Royal Navy, named after the English county . She was launched on 29 January 1929 at Portsmouth Dockyard, UK. During the Second World War, she was last commanded by Captain Augustus Agar V.C....

out at sea. The wreck of the Hector was nominally returned to the Ocean Steamship Company on 20 April 1942, but the ongoing war meant that she was not refloated until 1946. She was then beached five miles north of Colombo for assessment. It was concluded that she was beyond economical repair, and she was sold for scrapping.