HMS Artifex

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(Redirected from
HMS Artifex (F28)
)
For other ships with the same name, see
RMS Aurania
.

as HMS Artifex
History
British Red EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameRMS Aurania
Builder
Wallsend-on-Tyne
Launched6 February 1924
Out of service
  • Requisitioned on 30 August 1939
  • Purchased on 24 March 1942
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Artifex
Acquired
  • Requisitioned on 30 August 1939
  • Purchased outright on 24 March 1942
CommissionedAugust 1944
RenamedRenamed HMS Artifex in November 1942
Reclassified
  • Armed Merchant Cruiser
    on 2 October 1939
  • Repair ship in 1944
IdentificationPennant number F28
FateScrapped in 1961
General characteristics
Tonnage13,984 GRT
Length520 ft (160 m)
Beam65 ft (20 m)
PropulsionSteam turbines
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Armament
  • (As AMC) 8 × 6 inch (152 mm) guns
  • 2 × 3 inch (76 mm) guns

HMS Artifex was a

Second World War and into the Cold War
. Launched as the
armed merchant cruiser. Damaged by a U-boat while sailing with an Atlantic convoy
, she was purchased outright and converted to a floating workshop, spending the rest of her life as a support ship for the navy.

Peacetime career

As one of the post-Great War "A-class" ocean liners,

Wallsend-on-Tyne yard for Cunard and launched on 6 February 1924.[1] Her sisters included RMS Alaunia and RMS Ausonia. With the merger of Cunard and the White Star Line
in 1933, she continued to serve with the resulting company, Cunard White Star Ltd.

War career

With war looming, she was requisitioned by the

Admiralty on 30 August 1939 and converted to serve as an armed merchant cruiser, which involved the fitting of a number of guns.[1] The conversion was completed on 2 October 1939.[1] On completion of the work she entered service protecting trade sailing through the North Atlantic, covering the convoys. She was initially assigned to the Northern Patrol, followed by the Bermuda and Halifax Escort Force and then the North Atlantic Escort Force.[1]

Aurania lying in Rothesay Bay on 24 October 1941, after having been damaged in the Atlantic

On 21 October 1941 she was sailing as an escort for

Hunt class destroyer HMS Croome, picked up three of the men, but was unable to locate the others. Some hours later U-123 came across the sinking lifeboat, with a single survivor, and took him prisoner.[2] Meanwhile, Aurania was escorted back to Rothesay Bay by the sloop HMS Totland, arriving on 23 October.[2] The Germans claimed that she had been sunk.[3]

She was laid up, spending the period between November 1941 and March 1942 with Plymouth Command.[1] She was bought outright by the Admiralty on 24 March 1942 and selected for conversion to a Heavy Repair Ship.[4] Work began that December and lasted until July 1944.[5] She was commissioned in August as HMS Artifex and after carrying out trials was prepared for service in the Pacific theatre.[6] She sailed to join the British Pacific Fleet in early 1945, and by March was being deployed out of Manus in the Admiralty Islands, supporting the ships of Task Force 57.[6] Artifex took passage to Leyte on 19 April to support ships involved in the attacks against the airfields in the Sakishima-Gunto Islands.[6] She remained here throughout April and much of May, sailing for Manus again on 20 May. She remained here for the rest of the war. On being released from the British Pacific Fleet in September she sailed back to Britain.[6]

Postwar

Artifex was kept in commission after her return and was assigned to the training establishment

Spezia.[5][6][7]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Aurania (F 28), Armed Merchant Cruiser". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Allied Ships hit by U-boats Aurania (F 28)". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  3. ^ Imperial War Museum (2013). "THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (A 6193)". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  4. ^ "HMS Artifex (F 28), Repair ship". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  5. ^ a b Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 22.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Geoffrey B Mason (2005). "Aurania, Repair ship". naval-history.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  7. ^ Warlow. Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy. pp. 19–20.

References

External links

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