SS Polar Chief was a merchant steamship that was built in England in 1897 and scrapped in Scotland in 1952.

She spent about 20 months in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, survived being hit by a torpedo in 1917, and returned to civilian service in 1919.

In 1923 she was sold to Norwegian buyers who renamed her Rey Alfonso and had her converted to carry whale oil.

In 1927 she was sold back to UK owners who renamed her Anglo-Norse and had her equipped as a whaling factory ship.

In the Second World War the ship carried heavy fuel oil and other cargoes as well as whale products.

[1] Sir Raylton Dixon and Company in Middlesbrough built her sister ship Montrose, launching her on 17 June 1897 and completing her that September.

[5] Three double ended boilers supplied steam at 180 pounds per square inch (12 bar) to her three-cylinder triple expansion engine, which drove her single screw.

Montcalm then made six return voyages between Cape Town and New Orleans, carrying horses or mules.

Her English stokers had refused to work with several Danes who had been signed on to the ship, and US muleteers caring for her cargo of 1,400 mules objected to the quality of food aboard.

[11] Anglo Saxon Petroleum was a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, which named all of its ships after genera of molluscs.

The US Navy destroyer USS Cushing gave damage control assistance and escorted Crenella back to Queenstown.

[23] She was refitted as a whale oil depot ship and placed under the management of Christian Nielsen & Co.[14] In 1925 HM Wrangell & Co A/S bought her and registered her in Haugesund.

[11] In August 1929 the Falkland Whaling Company bought Anglo-Norse, renamed her Polar Chief[11] and registered her in Jersey.

[34] In September 1939 Polar Chief was laid up at Tønsberg, but that December she left Norway in Convoy HN 5 to the Clyde.

In the early part of the Second World War she continued whaling, visiting South Georgia in March 1940.

In an attempt to reduce exposure to U-boats and German surface raiders, she sailed via the Western Atlantic.

On her return voyage she called at Aruba, and then Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she joined Convoy HX 35 to reach The Downs off the coast of Kent.

[11] On 2 July 1941 the Ministry of War Transport acquired Polar Chief and appointed Christian Salvesen & Co Ltd to manage her.

[35] She sailed independently to New York, and returned via Halifax where she joined Convoy HX 141 to Belfast Lough.

[37] From January until September 1944 Empire Chief operated in the Caribbean and along the East Coast of the United States.

She called frequently at Guantanamo Bay and at New York, and occasionally at Aruba, Curaçao, Houston, Charleston and Portland, Maine.

[39] On 29 April 1952 Polar Chief arrived at Dalmuir in Dunbartonshire for WH Arnott Young Ltd to start breaking her up.

On 22 June her partly-dismantled hulk was towed to Troon in Ayrshire, where the West of Scotland Shipbreaking Co Ltd continued her demolition.