RMS Aurania (1924)
as HMS Artifex
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Class and type: | Ocean liner |
| Name: | RMS Aurania |
| Builder: | Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd., Wallsend-on-Tyne |
| Launched: | 6 February 1924 |
| Out of service: |
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 United Kingdom
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| Class and type: | Repair ship |
| Name: | HMS Artifex |
| Acquired: |
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| Commissioned: | August 1944 |
| Renamed: | Renamed HMS Artifex in November 1942 |
| Reclassified: |
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| Fate: | Scrapped in 1961 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 13,984 tons BRT |
| Length: | 520 ft (160 m) |
| Beam: | 65 ft (20 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Armament: |
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| Notes: | Pennant number F28 |
HMS Artifex was a repair ship of the Royal Navy from late in the Second World War and into the Cold War. Launched as the Cunard liner RMS Aurania she was requisitioned on the outbreak of war to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. Damaged by a U-boat while sailing with an Atlantic convoy, she was purchased outright and converted to a floating workshop, spending the rest of her life as a support ship for the navy.
As one of the post-Great War "A-class" ocean liners, RMS Aurania was built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. at their Wallsend-on-Tyne yard for Cunard and launched on 6 February 1924. Her sisters included RMS Alaunia and RMS Ausonia. With the merger of Cunard and the White Star Line in 1933, she continued to serve with the resulting company, Cunard White Star Ltd.
With war looming, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 30 August 1939 and converted to serve as an armed merchant cruiser, which involved the fitting of a number of guns. The conversion was completed on 2 October 1939. On completion of the work she entered service protecting trade sailing through the North Atlantic, covering the convoys. She was initially assigned to the Northern Patrol, followed by the Bermuda and Halifax Escort Force and then the North Atlantic Escort Force.
On 21 October 1941 she was sailing as an escort for convoy SL 89, bound from Halifax to the Clyde. She was straggling behind the convoy with a group of four other armed merchant cruisers and was sighted by U-123, under the command of Reinhard Hardegen. At 04.28 hours he fired three torpedoes at her, two of them hitting the Aurania in the bow and under the bridge. The ship began to flood at the Number 3 hold, causing a list to port that eventually reached 25 degrees. The Aurania's cargo of empty drums acted to keep her afloat, and the captain was able to reduce the list to 15 degrees and get underway again. Meanwhile, other convoy escorts had chased U-123 away from the scene. During the confusion a lifeboat had been launched containing six men, but it swamped upon hitting the water. One of the escorts, the Hunt class destroyer HMS Croome, picked up three of the men, but was unable to locate the others. Some hours later U-123 came across the sinking lifeboat, with a single survivor, and took him prisoner. Meanwhile, Aurania was escorted back to Rothesay Bay by the sloop HMS Totland, arriving on 23 October. The Germans claimed that she had been sunk.
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Wikipedia