MS Alcantara (1927)

Alcantara off Rio de Janeiro between 1934 and 1939
History
United Kingdom
Name:	RMS Alcantara (1926–39; 1943–58) HMS Alcantara (1939–43) Kaisho Maru (1958)
Namesake:	Alcántara
Owner:	RMSP Meat Transports (1926–32) Royal Mail Lines (1932–58)
Operator:	Royal Navy (1939–43)
Port of registry:	Belfast
Route:	Southampton – South America
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	586
Launched:	23 September 1926
Completed:	18 February 1927
Commissioned:	1939
Decommissioned:	1943
Identification:	UK official number: 148151 code letters: KVQC (until 1933) call sign: GLQR (from 1934)
Fate:	Returned to civilian service 1948 Broken up 1958
General characteristics
Type:	ocean liner 1926–39; 1948–58 armed merchant cruiser 1939–43 troop ship 1943–48
Tonnage:	22,181 GRT tonnage under deck 16,089 13,189 NRT
Length:	630 ft 6 in (192.18 m) p/p 656 ft (200 m) o/a
Beam:	78 ft 6 in (23.93 m)
Draught:	44 ft 9 in (13.64 m)
Depth:	40 ft 6 in (12.34 m)
Decks:	7
Installed power:	As built: 3,366 NHP; 10,000 ihp, 7,500 bhp From 1934: 4,205 NHP; 24,000 shp
Propulsion:	twin screws powered by: 2 × 8 cylinder 4-stroke double-acting Burmeister & Wain diesel engines (until 1934); 6 × steam turbines (from 1934)
Speed:	16 1⁄2 knots (30.6 km/h) (until 1934) 19 knots (35 km/h) (from 1934)
Boats & landing craft carried:	built with 30 lifeboats, later reduced to 28
Capacity:	1,430 passengers: 432 1st class 223 2nd class 775 3rd class
Complement:	254
Sensors and processing systems:	wireless direction finding echo sounding device
Armament:	as AMC: 8 × BL 6 inch Mk XII naval guns QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns
Notes:	sister ship: RMS Asturias

RMS Alcantara was a Royal Mail Lines ocean liner that was built in Belfast in 1926. She served in the Second World War first as an armed merchant cruiser and then a troop ship, was returned to civilian service in 1948 and scrapped in 1958.

In the First World War the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company lost a number of ships to enemy action, including three of its "A-series" passenger liners: Alcantara, Aragon and Asturias. After the 1918 Armistice RMSP prioritised the replacement of lost cargo ships, using new refrigerated cargo ships to take a share of the growing trade in frozen meat from South America to the UK.

High demand for new merchant ships to replace First World War losses kept shipbuilding prices high, so RMSP Chairman Lord Kylsant deferred ordering any new passenger liners for a few years. However, in 1921 Parliament passed the Trade Facilities Act, which offered low-interest loans and Government guarantees for repayment. In 1924 Kylsant took advantage of the Act by ordering from Harland and Wolff of Belfast a pair of 22,200 GRT passenger liners with a speed of 18 to 19 knots (33 to 35 km/h).

Harland and Wolff launched Asturias on 7 July 1925 and completed her in February 1926. Her sister ship Alcantara was launched on 23 September 1926 and completed in February 1927. The latter was named after Royal Mail Lines' previous Alcantara, which was an armed merchant cruiser in the First World War and had been lost when she and the German armed merchant cruiser SMS Greif sank each other in 1916.