Navy | The Royal Navy |
Type | Armed Merchant Cruiser |
Class | [No specific class] |
Pennant | F 47 |
Built by | Workman Clark & Co. Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) |
Ordered | |
Laid down | |
Launched | 14 Aug 1923 |
Commissioned | 4 Jan 1940 |
Lost | 4 Apr 1941 |
Loss position | 14° 30'N, 40° 30'W |
History | On 27 October 1939 the passenger ship Voltaire of the Lamport & Holt Ltd, Liverpool was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. Conversion was completed on 4 January 1940. Displacement: 13245 BRT Career: On 4 April 1941 HMS Voltaire (A/Capt. James Alexander Pollard Blackburn, DSC, (retired), RN) was on isolated patrol in the central Atlantic, about 900 nautical miles west of the Cape Verde Islands: at 0615 hrs she was spotted by the lookouts of the german raider Thor (Schiff 10, 3862 tgr, 6-150 {5.9"}, 4-21" tubes, FK Kähler) and the ships headed for each other. |
Commands listed for HMS Voltaire (F 47)
Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.
Commander | From | To | |
1 | Capt. (retired) Claude Lindesay Bate, DSO, RN | 25 Sep 1939 | 21 Sep 1940 |
2 | A/Capt. (retired) James Alexander Pollard Blackburn, DSC, RN | 21 Sep 1940 | 4 Apr 1941 |
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