HMS Crispin
1941 "ON Saturday, February 22nd, it was announced with regret by the Board of Admiralty that H.M.S. "Crispin," an armed auxiliary vessel of the Royal Navy, had been sunk. The "Crispin" was under the command of Lieut.-Commander Moloney, D.S.O., R.N.R., whom, we regret to have to record, was among those reported missing. The "Crispin" was in peacetime one of the later ships of the Booth Line fleet and was designed for carrying both passengers and cargo.
She was built in 1935 at the Birkenhead yard of Cammell, Laird and Co, Ltd:, and was registered at Liverpool. The principal dimensions of the ship were as follows: -Length overall, about 450ft.; moulded breadth, 55ft. 6in.; and loaded draught, 25ft. 71/2in. She was a single-screw ship and was propelled by a set of triple-expansion reciprocating engines with a Bauer-Wach Exhaust Turbine System exhaust steam turbine having a designed output of about 3000 I.H.P. Steam was generated at a working pressure of about 220 lb. per square inch in three boilers of the Howden-Johnson type. The boilers were coal fired by hand.
The "Crispin" was a pioneer ship, in that she was the first vessel to go to sea with Howden-Johnson boilers. She had a measurement of 5051 gross tons; and a deadweight carrying capacity of 7870 tons, her designed service speed being about 13 knots."[1]