SS Avila Star

History

United Kingdom
Name:	Avila (1927–29) Avila Star (1929–42)
Namesake:	Ávila, Spain
Owner:	Blue Star Line
Operator:	Blue Star Line
Port of registry:	London
Route:	London – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires
Ordered:	1925
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Yard number:	514
Launched:	22 September 1926
Completed:	March 1927
Identification:	UK official number 149791 code letters KVRJ (until 1933) call sign GMTY (from 1934)
Fate:	sunk by torpedo, 5 July 1942
General characteristics
Type:	passenger and refrigerated cargo liner
Tonnage:	as built: 12,872 gross register tons (GRT) tonnage under deck 9314 7,878 net register tons (NRT) after lengthening: 14,443 GRT tonnage under deck 11399 8,836 NRT
Length:	as built: 510.2 ft (155.5 m) after lengthening: 550.4 ft (167.8 m)
Beam:	68.2 ft (20.8 m)
Draught:	as built: 37 ft 4 in (11.38 m) after lengthening: 46 ft 0 in (14.02 m)
Depth:	as built: 33.9 ft (10.3 m) after lengthening: 42.6 ft (13.0 m)
Decks:	3
Installed power:	as built: 2,007 NHP after lengthening: 1,840 NHP
Propulsion:	as built: 5 boilers feeding 4 steam turbines driving 2 screw propellers after rebuild: boilers reduced from 5 to 4
Speed:	16 knots (30 km/h)
Capacity:	162 1st class passengers plus refrigerated cargo
Crew:	159 plus (in wartime) 6 DEMS gunners
Sensors and processing systems:	direction finding equipment plus (after 1934) echo sounding device
Armament:	(as DEMS)
Notes:	sister ship: Avelona Star

Avila (1927–29)

as built: 2,007 NHP

as built: 5 boilers feeding 4 steam turbines driving 2 screw propellers

SS Avila Star, originally SS Avila, was a British turbine steamship of the Blue Star Line. She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship, providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London. She was built in 1927, renamed Avila Star in 1929 and lengthened in 1935. She was sunk by a German submarine in 1942 with the loss of 84 lives.

In 1925 Blue Star ordered a set of new liners for its new London – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires route. Cammell Laird of Birkenhead built three sister ships: Almeda, Andalucia and Arandora. John Brown & Company of Clydebank built two: Avelona and Avila. Together the quintet came to be called the "luxury five".

John Brown & Co launched Avila on 22 September 1926 and completed her in March 1927. Her sister ship, Avelona, quickly followed, being launched on 6 December 1926 and completed in May 1927. As originally built, Avila was 512.2 ft (156.1 m) long, had a beam of 68.2 ft (20.8 m) and a draught of 37 ft 4 in (11.38 m). She had 32 oil-fired corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 573 square feet (53.2 m²) heating three double-ended and two single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 30,580 square feet (2,841 m²). Her boilers supplied steam at a pressure of 200 psi (1,400 kPa) to four Parsons steam turbines with a combined rating of 2,007 NHP or 13,880 shaft horsepower (10,350 kW). Her turbines were single-reduction geared onto the shafts to drive her twin screws at about 120 RPM, giving her a speed of 16 knots (30 km/h).Avila was fitted with wireless direction finding equipment.

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