HMS Artifex

Last updated

HMS Artifex.jpg
as HMS Artifex
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameRMS Aurania
Builder Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd., Wallsend-on-Tyne
Launched6 February 1924
Out of service
  • Requisitioned on 30 August 1939
  • Purchased on 24 March 1942
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Artifex
Acquired
  • Requisitioned on 30 August 1939
  • Purchased outright on 24 March 1942
CommissionedAugust 1944
RenamedRenamed HMS Artifex in November 1942
Reclassified
Identification Pennant 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 repair ship of the Royal Navy from late in the Second World War and into the Cold War. Launched as the Cunard liner RMS Aurania she was requisitioned on the outbreak of war to serve as an 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.

Contents

Peacetime career

As one of the post-Great War "A-class" ocean liners, RMS Aurania was built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. at their 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 AMC Aurania.jpg
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 convoy SL 89, bound from Halifax to the Clyde. [2] She was straggling behind the convoy with a group of four other armed merchant cruisers and was sighted by U-123, under the command of Reinhard Hardegen. [2] At 04.28 hours he fired three torpedoes at her, two of them hitting the Aurania in the bow and under the bridge. The ship began to flood at the Number 3 hold, causing a list to port that eventually reached 25 degrees. The Aurania's cargo of empty drums acted to keep her afloat, and the captain was able to reduce the list to 15 degrees and get underway again. [2] Meanwhile, other convoy escorts had chased U-123 away from the scene. During the confusion a lifeboat had been launched containing six men, but it swamped upon hitting the water. [2] One of the escorts, the 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 HMS Caledonia at Rosyth, which was used to train artificer apprentices. [6] She remained here as a training ship until 1955, when she was paid off and reduced to the reserve. She continued to be based at Caledonia though as a tender. [6] She was finally laid up at the Dockyard and placed on the disposal list. HMS Artifex was sold for scrapping to BISCO on 28 December 1960 and departed Rosyth under tow on 7 January 1961, bound for the shipbreakers at Spezia. [5] [6] [7]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Aurania (F 28), Armed Merchant Cruiser". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "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. 1 2 Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 22.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 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.

Related Research Articles

Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Campania after the region of Campania in Italy:

RMS <i>Aquitania</i> British ocean liner (in service 1914–1950)

RMS Aquitania was an ocean liner of the Cunard Line in service from 1914 to 1950. She was designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 30 May 1914. She was given the title of Royal Mail Ship (RMS) like many other Cunard ocean liners since she carried the royal mail on many of her voyages. Aquitania was the third in Cunard Line's grand trio of express liners, preceded by RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, and was the last surviving four-funnelled ocean liner. Shortly after Aquitania entered service, the First World War broke out, during which she was first converted into an auxiliary cruiser before being used as a troop transport and a hospital ship, notably as part of the Dardanelles Campaign.

USS <i>Twiggs</i> (DD-127) Wickes-class destroyer

The first USS Twiggs (DD–127) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Major Levi Twiggs. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy, as HMS Leamington and to the Soviet Navy as Zhguchy, before returning to Britain to star in the film The Gift Horse, which depicts the St. Nazaire Raid.

HMS <i>Charybdis</i> (88) Cruiser of the Royal Navy

HMS Charybdis was a Dido-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War and was sunk with heavy loss of life by German torpedo boats in an action in the English Channel in October 1943.

SS <i>Rajputana</i>

SS Rajputana was a British passenger and cargo carrying ocean liner. She was built for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company at the Harland and Wolff shipyard at Greenock on the lower River Clyde, Scotland in 1925. She was one of the P&O R-class liners from 1925 that had much of their interiors designed by Lord Inchcape's daughter Elsie Mackay. Named after the Rajputana region of western India, she sailed on a regular route between England and British India.

Greek destroyer <i>Adrias</i> (L67) Greek naval vessel (1942–1945)

Adrias was a Type III Hunt-class destroyer that was originally built for the Royal Navy as HMS Border but never commissioned. Before her completion, she was loaned to the Royal Hellenic Navy on 20 July 1942 and commissioned as Adrias on 5 August 1942 in order to relieve heavy losses of ships sustained by the Royal Hellenic Navy during the German invasion of 1941 and throughout the war. Adrias took her name from the ancient Greek town of Adria in Italy, at the mouth of the Po river, after which the Adriatic Sea is named.

HMS <i>Unbroken</i> Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Unbroken (P42) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness; it was part of the third group of that class and has been the only vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She entered service as P42 and was renamed Unbroken on 1 February 1943.

RMS <i>Andania</i> (1921) Brisith ocean liner

RMS Andania was a British ocean liner launched in 1921. She was the first of six 14,000-ton A-class liners built for the Cunard Line in the early 1920s. The other ships were Antonia, Ausonia, Aurania, Ascania, and Alaunia.

HMS <i>Leith</i> (U36) Royal Navy ship

HMS Leith was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War.

HMS <i>Mahratta</i> (G23) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Mahratta was an M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which served during World War II. Begun as Marksman, she was damaged while under construction, and dismantled to be rebuilt on a new slipway. She was launched as Mahratta in 1942, completed in 1943, and quickly pressed into service. After a short but busy career in the North Atlantic and Arctic, largely guarding merchant convoys, she was torpedoed and sunk on 25 February 1944.

SS <i>Letitia</i>

SS Letitia was an ocean liner built in Scotland for service with the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She continued to serve with its successor company Donaldson Atlantic Line. At the start of the Second World War in September 1939, the British Admiralty requisitioned the ship for service and had it converted to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. She was withdrawn from this service in 1941 to become a troop ship.

HMS <i>Martin</i> (G44) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Martin was an M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, launched at the Tyneside yard of Vickers-Armstrongs on 12 December 1940. She had a busy but brief wartime career, being sunk by the German submarine U-431 on 10 November 1942 off Algiers.

RMS <i>Ascania</i> (1923)

The RMS Ascania was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. She was launched on 20 December 1923 at the Armstrong Whitworth Shipbuilders Ltd yard in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; the fifth of Cunard's six "A" class liners. Due to unforeseen cost overruns, the vessel was not completed until May 1925. Following service in a number of military roles during the Second World War, she was refitted and returned to civilian use in 1950, finally retiring in 1956.

The SS Ranpura was a British passenger and cargo carrying ocean liner built by R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Newcastle upon Tyne for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company in 1924. She was the first of the P&O 'R' class liners that had much of their interiors designed by Lord Inchcape's daughter Elsie Mackay. She was launched 13 September 1924 and sponsored by C.C. Straker, wife of the chairman of Hawthorn Leslie and Company.

HMS <i>Viscount</i> (D92) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Viscount was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and in World War II.

HMS <i>Wivern</i> (D66) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

The second HMS Wivern, was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convoy HX 126</span> Convoy during naval battles of the Second World War

Convoy HX 126 was the 126th of the numbered series of World War II HX convoys of merchant ships from HalifaX to Liverpool.

Convoy HX 65 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It was the 65th of the numbered series of merchant convoys run by the Allies from Halifax to Liverpool. The convoy was attacked by German U-boats and aircraft, losing eight of its 51 ships sunk and a further three damaged. One U-boat was damaged.

Convoy HX 47 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It was the 47th of the numbered series of merchant convoys run by the Allies from Halifax to Liverpool. The convoy was attacked by German U-boats and lost three of its 58 ships.

HMS <i>Dianella</i> Royal Navy World War II Flower-class corvette

HMS Dianella was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.