HMT Aragon

HMT Aragon

History
Name	HMT Aragon
Owner	Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.
Builder	Harland and Wolf Belfast.
Launched	23 Feb 1905
Completed	22 Jun 1905
In service	14 Jul 1905
Out of service	30 Dec 1917
Reclassified	Passenger ship
Fate	Torpedoed and sank
General characteristics
Type	Mails ship / passengers
Tonnage	9,588 tons
Length	512 ft 4 in (156.16m)
Beam	60 ft 4 in (18.39m)
Depth	31 ft (9.45m)
Propulsion	twin screw
Speed	16 knots (29.63 km/h)
Capacity	306 x 1st class; 66 x 2nd; 632 x 3rd.

Remarks

Built as a transatlantic mail ship for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She was the first of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's fleet of "A-liners" that worked regular routes between Southampton and South American ports including Buenos Aires.

In 1913 Aragon became Britain's first Defensively-Armed Merchant Ship ("DAMS") of modern times. Armamentincluded 2 × stern-mounted QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns (from 1913). During WW1 it acted as a fast troop ship, primarily in the Mediterranean, including participation in the British landing at Cape Helles during the Gallipoli campaign. Her duties also included evacuating nearly 1,500 wounded personnel to Alexandria and Malta.

on 30 Dec 1917 just outside Alexandria Harbour, the Aragon was torpedoed by U Boat UC-34, which also torpedoed the ship which had picked up most of her survivors. In all 610 of the 2,700 troops aboard her were lost.

Armament: 2 × stern-mounted QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns (from 1913)[4

Soldiers carried

Alexandria to England 11 - 15 June 1916

• Herbert Fuhrmann

Alexandria to Marseilles 27 September - 3 October 1917

• Pierre Wolfe Daimpre