HMS Artifex
as HMS Artifex
| |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | RMS Aurania |
Builder | Wallsend-on-Tyne |
Launched | 6 February 1924 |
Out of service |
|
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Artifex |
Acquired |
|
Commissioned | August 1944 |
Renamed | Renamed HMS Artifex in November 1942 |
Reclassified |
|
Identification | Pennant number F28 |
Fate | Scrapped in 1961 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 13,984 GRT |
Length | 520 ft (160 m) |
Beam | 65 ft (20 m) |
Propulsion | Steam turbines |
Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Armament |
|
HMS Artifex was a
Peacetime career
As one of the post-Great War "A-class" ocean liners,
War career
With war looming, she was requisitioned by the
On 21 October 1941 she was sailing as an escort for
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
Notes
- ^ a b c d e "Aurania (F 28), Armed Merchant Cruiser". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f "Allied Ships hit by U-boats Aurania (F 28)". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- ^ Imperial War Museum (2013). "THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (A 6193)". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
- ^ "HMS Artifex (F 28), Repair ship". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- ^ a b Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 22.
- ^ Warlow. Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy. pp. 19–20.
References
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Osborne, Richard; Spong, Harry & Grover, Tom (2007). Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945. Windsor, UK: World Warship Society. ISBN 978-0-9543310-8-5.
- Warlow, Ben (2000). Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy: Being a list of the Static Ships and Establishments of the Royal Navy. Liskeard: Maritime. ISBN 978-0-907771-73-9.
- Geoffrey B Mason (2005). "Aurania, Repair ship". naval-history.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- "Aurania (F 28), Armed Merchant Cruiser". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- "Allied Ships hit by U-boats Aurania (F 28)". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- "HMS Artifex (F 28), Repair ship". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- Imperial War Museum (2013). "THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (A 6193)". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 3 April 2013.