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RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE
THE OCEAN LINERS |
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Welcome to our Arandora Star website celebrating this stylish and beautiful ship. She was originally built in 1927 by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead for Blue Star Line as the Arandora. She was one of the Luxury Five built in the 1920s for the South American service from London. She sailed on this service until 1928 when she was sent to be refitted as a cruise liner in 1929. She re-emerged as the white hulled Arandora Star. As a cruise liner she cruised to many different destinations including Norway, the Northern Capitals, the Mediterranean, the West Indies, Panama, Cuba, and Florida. In 1939
with the onset of the Second World War the Arandora Star was
requisitioned for troopship duties. In 1940 she evacuated troops from
Norway and France but then sailed from Liverpool on what became her
final voyage taking Axis Nationals and prisoners of war to Canada. She
departed Liverpool on the 1st July 1940 unescorted bound for St Johns
in Newfoundland, Canada and the Canadian internment camps. On board she
had nearly 1,200 German and Italian internees including 86 POWs. There
were also 374 British men on board in the form of miliary guards and
the ship's crew. The ship bore no Red Cross sign. At 6.58 AM on the 2nd
July 1940 off the northwest coast of Ireland, she was struck by a torpedo from the German submarine U-47, commanded by U-Boat ace Gunther Prien. It is assumed that U-47
mistook her grey wartime livery for that of an armed merchant cruiser. U-47 fired its single damaged torpedo at Arandora Star. All power was lost at once, and thirty
five minutes after the torpedo impact, Arandora Star sank. Over eight hundred lives were lost.
It was one of the worst maritime tragedies of the Second World
War. This
website aims to record the history of this fine ocean liner and
commemorate her very tragic loss in the Second World War and act as
a virtual home to honour and celebrate this fine ship. We hope you
enjoy this
website and when you leave we hope you will visit again soon.
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S.S. Arandora Star ~ One of the Luxury
Five ~
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London to
Lisbon, Las Palmas, Rio de Janiero, Santos, Montevideo and Buenos
Aires "South American" service
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(c) The AJN Transport Britain Collection 2010 A Edward Elliott