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  Another anecdote with local (yes, local) connections is the story of the Canadian Pacific liner SS Montrose. This ship achieved some notoriety in 1910 when two passengers, the wife-murderer Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen and his mistress Ethel La Neve attempted to avoid justice by escaping to Canada. Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard suspected this attempt and took what was then a highly unusual step. Via Marconi he radioed all transatlantic ships giving details of the couple. Captain Henry Kendall of the Montrose responded with his suspicions of the couple who he thought were showing undue signs of affection in public ( La Neve was dressed as a boy!).
  
  Instantly, Insp. Dew sailed for Canada (then subject to British law) on a much faster liner which overtook the Montrose, and he was waiting at Quebec to arrest Crippen, who was returned to the UK to face trial and the noose!
  
  Interestingly, this was the first time a murderer had been apprehended with the aid of radio.
  
  The local connection is that in 1914 the Montrose was acquired by the Admiralty to be sunk as a blockship in the Western Entrance of Dover Harbour. On 20 Dec., as a dead ship (no crew or power), she broke from her moorings on the Admiralty Pier in a high gale and floundered uncontrollably across the harbour. Despite bouncing off the inner wall of the breakwater a few times she miraculously avoided colliding with any of the numerous Royal Naval ships moored to buoys in the eastern part of the harbour. A final fluke was that Montrose exited through the Eastern Entrance and ended up with a broken back on the Goodwins.
  
  Her place as a blockship was taken by the Spanish Prince, the final remnants of which were removed in 2010.

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