HMCS Prince Henry was an armed merchant cruiser and a landing ship infantry during World War II for the Royal Canadian Navy.

However, lack of commercial opportunity and the arrival of the Great Depression forced the vessel's owners to send Prince Henry to ply the passenger trade along the North American eastern seaboard.

In 1937, the vessel was chartered by Clarke Steamship Company and renamed SS North Star for service in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

In 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, North Star was one of the vessels acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy for naval service, which returned the ship to its original name.

The armed merchant cruiser escorted convoys in the US Aleutians campaign before returning to Canada to undergo conversion to a landing ship infantry.

Prince Henry continued service in the Mediterranean, landing Allied troops at Piraeus in the liberation of Greece from the Axis powers.

[3] Prince Henry had a small forecastle and cruiser stern as built and three funnels situated on an extra deck combined with a vertical stem.

[1] The ship was powered by six Yarrow watertube boilers feeding two Parsons single reduction geared steam turbines, driving two shafts.

[5] The ship was armed with four single breech-loading 6-inch (152 mm) Mk VII guns of antiquated design for engaging surface targets were mounted along the centreline, two forward and two aft.

After the conversion, Prince Henry was of similar strength to the destroyers in service with the Royal Canadian Navy, but with greater range.

The failure of the class along the Pacific coast caused the president of Canadian National, Sir Henry Thornton, to be ousted and the Conservative government's angry attention to CN's business.

Prince Henry began performing Atlantic cruises in 1932, making 24 round trips between Boston, Havana and other Caribbean ports by the end of the year.

[11] In September 1939, as part of the initial Canadian wartime naval programme, the three Prince ships were selected for conversion into armed merchant cruisers.

[13] Assigned to operate with Diomede off the coast of South America, Prince Henry sailed into the port of Callao, Peru on 24 March 1941 to refuel.

After refueling, Prince Henry left the port on 25 March and awaited the German merchant ships outside of Peruvian waters.

It was then decided to sink the burning merchant, and Prince Henry fired 35 rounds of its 6-inch (152 mm) guns into the hull of Hermonthis.

The crew and their lifeboats were later intercepted by Bishopdale, however the ship was unable to capture them, being an unarmed tanker and the Germans made it safely ashore at Casma, Peru, where they were arrested.

[13] Following the sinking of the two German ships, Prince Henry continued patrolling for three more weeks and then returned to Esquimalt, British Columbia to resupply and offload prisoners.

[15] The ship departed the West Indies on 20 April and arrived at Esquimalt on 7 May and served with the local escort force there until March 1943, with the exception of a period spent on assignment with the United States Navy during the Aleutians campaign.

Upon arrival and disembarking the children, the vessel sailed to Clydebank to undergo final fitting of radar, communications equipment and Oerlikons at the John Brown & Company shipyard.

[19][20] Aside from landing troops, Prince Henry also acted as senior officer's ship of Force J1, composed of 22 merchant vessels heading for Juno Beach.

[19] After reaching a position 7 miles (11 km) offshore, Force J turned parallel to the coast, with 300 yards (270 m) between ships and prepared for the assault.

Prince Henry embarked 57 wounded, along with survivors from ships that had sunk during the assault and sailed back to Cowes in a nine-ship convoy at night.

[23] Prince Henry embarked landing craft and American troops for Utah Beach during the reinforcement phase of the assault.

Prince Henry arrived at Naples on 31 July and was designated the headquarters ship for the force subdivision "Sitka Unit B" on 6 August.

On 14 August "Sitka Unit B" departed for the coastal islands of Port-Cros and Île du Levant, which were located 22 miles (35 km) east of Toulon.

Prince Henry's landing craft spend the day shuttling casualties and prisoners of war to the waiting ships offshore.

Following the main invasion of southern France, Prince Henry travelled between Corsica and the landing zone twice before returning to Italy.

On 23 December, the ship was ordered to Preveza to take over duties of Senior Naval Officer and to evacuate as many people as possible during the Greek Civil War.

[30] Following the Suez Crisis, Empire Parkeston returned to service on the Harwich-Holland run, but was withdrawn in September 1961 after troop movements began to be made exclusively by air.