Shropshire served in the Royal Navy until 1942, when she was transferred to Australia after the loss of HMAS Canberra. George VI announced that the replacement would take the name Canberra, but Franklin Roosevelt had already assigned that name to an under-construction Baltimore-class cruiser previously intended as Pittsburgh. The American choice was an exceptional honour: Canberra was the only US Navy ship named for a foreign capital. From the Australian perspective, however, the commemoration prevented the Royal Australian Navy from continuing the name under its own flag. British objections added a second concern because some sailors regarded renaming a ship after one just sunk as inviting bad luck. The transferred cruiser therefore retained the unmistakably English name Shropshire.
Chapter · 40:15-45:07
Shropshire's transfer to the Royal Australian Navy
Shropshire's transfer after the loss of HMAS Canberra became entangled with two allied attempts to commemorate the Australian cruiser.