RMS Andes (1939)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	Andes
Namesake:	Andes mountain range
Owner:	Royal Mail Lines
Operator:	Royal Navy (1939–47)
Port of registry:	London
Route:	Southampton – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires (1948–59)
Ordered:	1937
Builder:	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	1005
Laid down:	17 June 1937
Launched:	7 March 1939
Sponsored by:	Viscountess Craigavon
Completed:	December 1939
Maiden voyage:	26 September 1939
Out of service:	4 May 1971
Identification:	UK official number 167337 call sign GQCV
Fate:	scrapped in Ghent, 1971
General characteristics
Class and type:	troop ship, ocean liner, cruise ship
Tonnage:	26,689 GRT tonnage under deck 17,235 14,787 NRT
Length:	643.3 ft (196.1 m) p/p
Beam:	83.5 ft (25.5 m)
Draught:	29 ft 3 in (8.92 m)
Depth:	43.6 ft (13.3 m)
Decks:	5
Installed power:	5,599 NHP
Propulsion:	6 × steam turbines
Speed:	From 1939: 24 knots (44 km/h) max; 21 knots (39 km/h) service From 1952: 18 knots (33 km/h) service
Boats & landing craft carried:	From 1939: 2 × 30 ft (9.1 m), 8-knot (15 km/h) motor boats 10 × 30 ft (9.1 m) lifeboats 2 × 24 ft (7.3 m) lifeboats From 1960: as above plus 2 × 44 ft (13 m) motor launches
Capacity:	1939 only: 607 passengers in 2 classes 1948–59: 528 passengers in 2 classes 1960–71: 470 passengers 5 holds, most parts refrigerated
Troops:	4,000
Sensors and processing systems:	As built: wireless direction finding echo sounding device gyrocompass Later: radar added in World War II
Armament:	As troop ship: 1 × 6-inch (150 mm) gun 1 × 4.5-inch (110 mm) gun 2 × QF 12 pounder guns 4 × twin Bofors 40 mm guns 14 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon depth charges 1 × unrotated projectile AA weapon

RMS Andes was a 26,689 GRT steam turbine Royal Mail Ship, ocean liner, cruise ship, and the flagship of the Royal Mail Lines fleet. She was the second Royal Mail ship to be named after the South American Andes mountain range. The first RMS Andes was an A-class liner launched in 1913. In 1929 that RMS Andes was converted into a cruise ship and renamed Atlantis.

The second Andes was built in Belfast in 1937–39 and completed at the outbreak of the Second World War. The Admiralty almost immediately requisitioned her as a troop ship and had her converted to carry about 4,000 troops. In troop service she broke three speed records for long-distance voyages.

Andes was converted back into a civilian liner in 1947. She entered civilian service in 1948 on RMSP's premier liner route between Southampton, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. For seven years she worked the route full-time, but from 1955 the frequency of her liner voyages decreased and she spent an increasing proportion of her time cruising. In 1959–60 she was converted at Flushing into a full-time cruise ship. She was scrapped at Ghent in 1971.

In 1924 RMSP ordered two new ocean liners for its Southampton – South America route from Harland and Wolff in Belfast. At 22,000 GRT each, Asturias and Alcantara were far larger than the "A-series" liners built for RMSP in 1903–16. And they were motor ships, then a relatively new form of propulsion in which Harland and Wolff had taken an early lead. But their cruising speed turned out to be only 16 ¹⁄₂ knots (30.6 km/h): well below the 18 to 19 knots (33 to 35 km/h) that the contract had specified.

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