2xT4cyl (27"42"49"49"x51") 1610nhp 17kn to outer screws
low pressure turbine to centre screw
Official No.
135497
Registered
Liverpool
Fate
Scrapped
[Harland and Wolff Collection]
Built originally for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company , but was transferred to the Royal Mail steam packet company before she was launched. She was eventually launched as the Andes in 1913. She was sister ship to Almanzora and Alcantara.
During the first world war she was seconded to the 10th cruiser squadron and used as an armed cruiser patrolling the North Atlantic. She had a refit after the war in Belfast in 1919 and was returned to her peace time run.
In 1929 she was refitted as a luxury cruise ship and took the name Atlantis.
In 1939 at the outbreak of world war two she was in Danzig but managed to escape and made her way to Southampton where she was fitted as a hospital ship.
After the war in 1948 she was refitted out as an immigrant ship and was chartered by the New Zealand government for four years.
Converted to a hospital ship in 1939, she was initially based at Alexandria, used in the Norwegian evacuation in 1940 and then sent to the Indian Ocean for the next two years. She took part in the Madagascar campaign in 1942 and in 1943 repatriated Italian prisoners of war to Lisbon and Germans to Gothenburg. She continued hospital and repatriation duties until 1946, was reconditioned to carry 900-3rd class passengers and used to carry emigrants from the UK to Australia and New Zealand.
Laid up in 1952, she was scrapped at Faslane the same year.
[Merchant Fleets by Duncan Haws, vol.5, Royal Mail Line]
