RMS ''Alaunia'' was a

Cunard Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...

ocean liner. She was built in 1913 at Greenock and measured . She was one of three sister ships Cunard ordered from

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde. In its time in Greenock, Scotts built over 1,250 ships. History John Scott fo ...

. Her sisters were , and . ''Alaunia'' was the second of the trio. She and her sisters had only 2nd class and 3rd class accommodation. ''Alaunia'' was launched on 9 June 1913, and began her maiden voyage on 27 December 1913. When World War I began, she was requisitioned as a troopship. HMS ''Alaunia'' was the first Cunard ship to carry Canadian troops. She was sent in the Gallipoli campaign by the summer of 1915. Then she worked on carrying troops to Bombay later the same year. She returned to the North Atlantic and carried troops from Canada and the USA in 1916. During a voyage from London to New York, she struck a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

on 19 October 1916 in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

off the Royal Sovereign Lightship of

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

, East Sussex. laid earlier that day by . After attempts to beach the ship and tow her to shore with tugs, her captain realized the ship was lost and finally gave the order to abandon ship. Two crew members were killed in her sinking. ''Alaunia''s wreck lies on its port side in the English Channel at a depth of . Cunard revived the name in 1925 when it had a second built. She served until 1957.

References

Ships of the Cunard Line Passenger ships of the United Kingdom 1913 ships Troop ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1916 Ships sunk by mines Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I World War I shipwrecks in the English Channel {{Merchantship-stub