HMHS Asturias
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMHS Asturias |
| Owner | Royal Mail Steam Packet Co |
| Builder | Harland & Wolf, Belfast |
| Yard number | 388 |
| Launched | 26 September 1907 |
| Completed | 8 January 1908 |
| In service | 1908 |
| Out of service | 1917 |
| In service | 1922 |
| Out of service | 1930 |
| Fate | scrapped 1933 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Passenger Liner |
| Tonnage | 12,015 tons |
| Length | 520.3 ft (158.6 m) |
| Beam | 62.3 ft (19.0 m) |
| Depth | 31.8 ft (9.7 m) |
| Propulsion | twin screw |
| Speed | 16.5 knots (30.56 kmph) |
| Capacity | 1,430 passengers: 432 x 1st class, 223 x 2nd, 775 x 3rd , crew of 254 |
Contents
Remarks
Built for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as an 'A' class passenger liner servicing the Southampton - Buenos Aires route. In 1913 she was armed as a defensive merchant ship with 2 stern mounted 4.7 inch (120mm) guns, but just prior to the war commencing she was converted to a Hospital Ship capable of handling 896 patients. Primarily used on the France England run, but also in the Mediterranean where she also served the Gallipoli campaign. On one voyage she returned 2,400 sick and injured to England from Egypt.
The first time she was attacked by a German U Boat, was on 1 Feb 1915 when the torpedo struck her, but failed to explode. On 20 Mar 1917 after unloading 1,000 injured at Avonmouth, she sailed for Southampton, but off Start Point Devon, the German U-Boat U-66 torpedoed her. The ship was able to be beached near Bolt Head. Victims numbered 48 dead and 12 missing. A month later she was refloated and taken to Plymouth where she was declared a total wreck. The Admiralty then used her as an ammunition hulk for the rest of the war.
Commercially refitted after the war she was renamed SS Arcadia and used as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean from 1923 until 1930 when she was laid up before being sold to the Japanese for scrap in 1933.