Photo. www.photoship.co.uk
Completed: 1938
Displacement: 15,784 tons
Length: 563 ft
Beam: 73 ft
Draught: 42 ft
Armament: 9x 152mm, 4x 102mm. She also was equipped with a Kingfisher floatplane.
Propulsion: Oil fired, 4 boilers with forced draught superheaters. 2 screws, 2 sets parsons single reduction geared turbines at 18,500 DHP.
Speed: 18 kts
Requisitioned by the Admiralty 1939 and converted to Armed Merchant Cruiser. Served in the South Atlantic from August 40 to November 41 at Freetown Escort Force. From December 41 to August 42 she remained at the South Atlantic Station Capetown.
On the 7th October 1941 she apprehended the German cargo vessel Karnak 300 miles north of St Paul's Rocks but failed to stop her being sunk by scuttling charges. In July 1942 she was refitted on the Clyde. During the Second World War the Canton had experienced the most arduous service of any P&O ship.
She had steamed 221,000 miles during the war including 257,967 miles as an Armed Merchant Cruiser and 20,830 miles as a troopship.In her capacity as a troopship she had transported 6,825 troops. On the 17th August 1946 she was released from war duties and returned to Alexander Stephen & Sons in Glasgow for reconditioning and refurbishment ready for a return to passenger service. She was broken up Hong Kong 1962.