The RMS Aurania (III) was an ocean liner of the British shipping company Cunard Line that was put into service in 1924 and was used in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and Canada . In 1942 she was sold to the British Admiralty and broken up in La Spezia in 1961 .
The ship
The 13,984 GRT steam turbine ship RMS Aurania was built at the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Wallsend ( North Tyneside ) in northern England and was launched on February 6, 1924. The 158.40 meter long and 19.90 meter wide passenger and mail ship was powered by steam turbines that made 8,500 SHP. The top speed was 15 knots. On board the ship there was space for 500 passengers in the cabin class and 1200 in the third class.
The Aurania was converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser at the beginning of the Second World War and used as escort for HX convoy trains (e.g. convoy HX 126 ). In this role, the ship survived a collision with an iceberg during a patrol trip in July 1941. In October of the same year, she received a torpedo hit and survived again. With great difficulty it was possible to reach the Clyde .
Like two of her sister ships, she was later converted into a workshop ship. Eventually she served as HMS Artifex (F28) in the Far East . After the war she was assigned to the reserve fleet. It was scrapped in Italy in 1961.
