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HMCS Prince David was one of three Canadian National Steamships passenger liners that were converted for the Royal Canadian Navy , first to armed merchant cruisers at the beginning of Second World War, then infantry landing ships or anti-aircraft escort. For three years, they were the largest ships in the RCN.
The three 'Prince' ships were a unique part of Canada's war effort: taken out of mercantile service, converted to armed merchant cruisers, two of them were reconfigured to infantry landing ships and one to an anti-aircraft escort; all three ships were paid off at war's end and then returned to mercantile service.
In the early part of the war, as armed merchant cruisers equipped with antique guns and very little armour, Prince David and her sisters were sent to hunt enemy submarines and surface ships, tasks better suited to warships. As the needs of the RCN changed, so were the 'Prince' ships able to adapt to new roles. Their flexibility offered the RCN greater scope and balance in its operations. They did not function as did the bulk of the Canadian fleet: no rushing back and forth across the ocean, cold and damp, chained to 50 degrees North. Prince David and her sisters, each with two separate employments, roamed most of the navigable world forming a little navy apart.