History

In the 1920s Blue Star Line was becoming a major competitor for the service to South America to its rivals - Nelson Line and Royal Mail Lines - and were planning five large new passenger liners for their service from London. These were the Luxury Five and the Arandora Star was one of them. But sadly later on in her five when a troopship during the Second World War she was tragically sunk with the loss of well over 800 lives in what was one of the worst maritime tragedies of the Second World War.

The Story of the Arandora Star

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeuZ6ft6pYw

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Blue Star Line era (1927 - 1939):

The Arandora Star 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 at Fairfields Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd at Govan in Glasgow on the River Clyde. During the refit, her gross tonnage was increased to 14,694 and first class accommodation was increased to 354 passengers.

Upon completion she returned to service as a full-time luxury cruise ship. At the time of this refit, she was also renamed Arandora Star. The renaming was done to avoid confusion with Royal Mail Lines ships which typically bore names beginning and ending in 'A'. 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. The Arandora Star also had two unique nicknames due to her colour scheme of a white hull with scarlet ribbon. The nicknames most frequently used were "The Wedding Cake" or the "Chocolate Box". Sadly her cruise life was relatively cut short by the onset of the Second World War. In this cruise role she carried around 400 passengers in luxury and she became a favourite of the rich and famous.

Wartime Service and Her Tragic Loss (1939 - 1940):

In 1939 with the onset of the Second World War the Arandora Star was requisitioned for troopship duties. She was bound for New York when war broke out. She then returned to Falmouth in England and was paid off  and after a period of experiments with anti-torpedo nets and other equipment she was ordered to Liverpool to await orders by the Admiralty.

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.

At 0705 hours Malin Head radio received the distress call which it retransmitted to Land's End and to Portpatrick. Throughout August 1940 bodies were washed up on the Irish shore. The first was 71-year-old Ernesto Moruzzi, who was found near Burtonport. Four others were found on the same day, 30 July. During August 1940, 213 bodies were washed up on the Irish Coast, 35 were from the Arandora Star, there were a further 92 unidentified, most probably from the Arandora Star.

The wreck of the ill fated Arandora Star is located at 56°30′N 10°38′W / 56.5°N 10.633°W / 56.5; -10.633. In the weeks following the sinking many bodies of those who perished on Arandora Star were carried by the sea to various points in Ireland and the Hebrides. There are a number of memorials at places where the ill-fated passengers were eventually laid to rest. Now memorials are in place for the Arandora Star in Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Italy.

Arandora Star Memorial in Bardi, Tuscany, Italy

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