RMS ''Andania'' was a British
ocean liner launched in 1921. She was the first of six 14,000-ton "A"-class liners built for the
Cunard Line in the early 1920s.
The other ships were ,
''Ausonia'', ,
''Ascania'', and
''Alaunia''.
Construction
The ship was constructed in
Hebburn
Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the sout ...
, England by the shipbuilders
Hawthorn Leslie and Company
R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982.
History
The company was formed ...
, was 538 feet long, and measured just under 14,000 tons. She could carry more than 1,700 passengers and required 270 crew.
Andania-II
Independent website - Retrieved on 2007-07-25 She firstly worked on the Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
to New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
route, and later between Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
and Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
.
Use during WW II
At the start of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, ''Andania'' was requisitioned for use as an armed merchant cruiser (as was her sister ship ''Aurania'') and armed with six old 6-inch (152 mm) guns, two 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns and several machine guns. On 25 November 1939 she took up her naval duties as HMS ''Andania'' with the Northern Patrol
The Northern Patrol, also known as Cruiser Force B and the Northern Patrol Force, was an operation of the British Royal Navy during the First World War and Second World War. The Patrol was part of the British "distant" blockade of Germany. Its ma ...
.
Fate
At 23:30 on 15 June 1940, HMS ''Andania'' was hit by a torpedo fired by the Nazi German
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
submarine south of Reykjavík, Iceland. Three more torpedoes fired by ''UA'' missed. ''Andania'' stayed afloat for several hours but was too damaged to be saved. She sank early on 16 June. While other ships of the Northern Patrol were in the vicinity – HMS ''Derbyshire'' was actually within visual range – they had strict orders not to risk rescue when a submarine was suspected nearby. However, the entire crew on the ''Andania'' was rescued by the Icelandic fishing vessel ''Skallagrimur''.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Cabin Liners: ''Cunard's "A"-Class Liners 1922''
1921 ships
Ships built on the River Tyne
Ships of the Cunard Line
World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II
World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Maritime incidents in June 1940
World War II Auxiliary cruisers of the Royal Navy
Ships sunk with no fatalities
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