51-527: SS Argentina may refer to: SS Argentina (1912), launched in 1912 as SS Reina Victoria-Eugenia , renamed Argentina in 1931 SS Argentina (1913), launched in 1913 as SS Bergensfjord , renamed Argentina in 1947 SS Argentina (1929) , launched in 1929 as SS Pennsylvania , renamed Argentina in 1938 SS Argentina (1958) , launched in 1958 and renamed numerous times [REDACTED] [REDACTED] List of ships with
102-641: A Nationalist air attack on the Port of Barcelona sank Argentina at her moorings. Her wreck had been raised by 1940 and was scrapped in 1945. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson built Reina Victoria-Eugenia at its Neptune Yard in Low Walker , England, launching her on 26 September 1912 and completing her in February 1913. At the same time William Denny and Brothers built her sister ship Infanta Isabel de Borbon , and there were significant technical differences between
153-538: A troop ship , and then served for more than two years as an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). As an AMC she saw service off West Africa , Singapore , the Bay of Bengal and the Far East . In 1917 two German mines sank Laurentic off the northern coast of Ireland. Her crew successfully abandoned ship, but 354 of them died of hypothermia in her lifeboats. Laurentic was carrying about 43 tons of gold bars when she sank. Most of
204-658: A careful lookout while passing over the Grand Banks, and had seen neither bodies nor wreckage". On 13 September 1914 Laurentic was requisitioned at Montreal to be a troop ship. She loaded 15,000 sacks of flour and embarked the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Dragoons . On 3 October she left Gaspé Bay as one of a convoy of 32 ships bringing more than 30,000 members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to Europe. She reached Plymouth on 14 October. The Admiralty then had Laurentic converted into an AMC. She
255-689: A mail service between Spain, Uruguay and Argentina. In 1932 the Republican government withdrew the mail subsidy so on 8 May CTE withdrew the service and laid up Argentina and Uruguay at Barcelona. By 1934 Argentina ' s code letters and original three-letter call sign had been superseded by the four-letter call sign EAIE. Argentina and Uruguay were still in Barcelona when the Spanish Civil War began in 1936. In January 1939 Nationalist troops were closing in on Barcelona and their air force bombed
306-496: A preference for a four-screw arrangement, with the piston engines driving the two middle screws and turbines driving the two outer screws. In 1910–11 Chantiers de l'Atlantique had put this idea into practice when it built the liner Rochambeau for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique . CGT reported favourable results to Swan, Hunter. CTE accepted this arrangement for Reina Victoria-Eugenia . The two sister ships for CTE differed slightly in appearance. Reina Victoria-Eugenia had
357-938: A taller funnel, whereas Infanta Isabel de Borbon had cowl tops on her king-posts. Reina Victoria-Eugenia was equipped for wireless telegraphy and submarine signalling . Her wireless operated on the standard 300 and 600 metre wavelengths. By 1914 her call sign was EDU. Swan, Hunter built Reina Victoria-Eugenia with berths for 2,066 passengers: 200 first-class, 46 "interchangeable" class, 100 second class, 80 third class and 1,640 third and emigrant classes. Her public saloons were decorated in various historicist styles including Louis XVI , Neo-Georgian and Jacobean Revival . Swan, Hunter made passive provision for Reina Victoria-Eugenia to be armed with four naval guns to enable her to be converted into an armed merchant cruiser . CTE registered Reina Victoria-Eugenia at Barcelona . Her code letters were JFGW. Reina Victoria-Eugenia ' s sea trials were in February 1913, in
408-444: A week. When the divers returned they found the wreck crushed. The entry port had been 60 ft (18 m) below the surface but was now 103 ft (31 m) below. The companionway to the baggage room was squashed, with its ceiling now only 18 in (460 mm) above its floor. Divers used explosives to force the ceiling back up, and they then shored it up. But when they reached the baggage room they found its floor torn open and
459-627: A westbound crossing to New York on 22 January 1910 a storm hit Laurentic that broke portholes on her upper deck, flooded her bridge and officers' quarters and disabled her engine order telegraphs . Laurentic also made winter cruises to the Mediterranean Sea and the West Indies . In July 1910 Metropolitan Police DCI Walter Dew used Laurentic ' s speed to reach Rimouski , Quebec ahead of murder suspect Hawley Harvey Crippen and his lover Ethel Le Neve , who were travelling aboard
510-636: The Canadian Pacific liner Montrose . Dew boarded Montrose , arrested Crippen and Le Neve, and repatriated them aboard Megantic . In 1911 Laurentic set a westbound record time for the route of 13 days and four hours from Liverpool to Montreal. By 1912 Laurentic was equipped for wireless telegraphy , operating on the 300 and 600 metre wavelengths. Her call sign was MIC. On a westbound crossing that year she passed where RMS Titanic had sunk on 15 April. Laurentic ' s Master , John Mathias, reported by wireless on 21 April "that he had kept
561-642: The First World War both Infanta Isabel de Borbon and Reina Victoria-Eugenia seem to have made some trips to New York . However, their scheduled service remained between Spain and the Río de la Plata . During the First World War the Entente Allies did not allow neutral ships to carry men of military age who were citizens of the Axis powers . In May 1918 Reina Victoria-Eugenia was en route from Tenerife to Spain when
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#1732863140616612-595: The North Sea near the mouth of the River Tyne . Her contract required her to maintain 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h) for eight hours when half-laden, and 16 knots (30 km/h) for 24 hours when fully laden. On 7 February, half-laden and displacing 10,181 tons, she averaged 18.12 knots (33.56 km/h) despite bad weather. On 15 and 16 February, fully laden and displacing 13,229 tons, she averaged 16.10 knots (29.82 km/h) on her fuel consumption trials. Her speed trials used
663-704: The Royal Navy forced her to divert to Gibraltar for examination because the British Admiralty had been alerted that there were German men of military age among her passengers. Authorities in Gibraltar found a German sailor from the auxiliary cruiser Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse who had been interned on the Canary Islands since his ship was sunk in August 1914, and who was travelling under Spanish armed escort. Also aboard
714-499: The Río de la Plata . For a time their route was revised to include additional calls at Almería and Rio de Janeiro . The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges travelled aboard Reina Victoria-Eugenia in 1922. The two ships were CTE's premier passenger liners until the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval (SECN) built the 10,551 GRT Alfonso XIII and 10,883 GRT Cristóbal Colón in 1923. They were joined by
765-471: The Wouri estuary . On 26–30 December Laurentic discharged prize crews from five of the captured ships. In January 1915 Laurentic returned via Lagos, Accra , Sekondi and Sierra Leone to Birkenhead . In Accra and Sekondi she embarked German civilian internees. In February 1915 Laurentic sailed to Gibraltar . She then patrolled to São Vicente , Sierra Leone and Kamerun until at least April. By July she
816-768: The measured mile off St Mary's Island . Fog reduced visibility, so the trials had to be held relatively close to the shore to be able to see the mile posts. This meant that the ship was steaming in waters only about 75 feet (23 m) deep. Nevertheless, on her best run she achieved 18.6 knots (34.4 km/h). It was reported that once the ship reached Spain, she achieved higher speeds in deeper water and better weather off Cádiz . CTE's liner services linked Italy and Spain with Latin America . On 12 March 1913 Reina Victoria-Eugenia started her maiden voyage from Barcelona via Malaga , Cádiz , Tenerife and Montevideo to Buenos Aires . Infanta Isabel de Borbon followed on 4 April. In
867-507: The 10,000 GRT Canada and 7,000 GRT Dominion . Laurentic carried 387 crew and had berths for 1,660 passengers: 230 first class, 430 second class and 1,000 third class. On her maiden voyage Laurentic left Liverpool on 29 April 1909 and reached both Quebec and Montreal on 7 May. In her five years of civilian service, Laurentic took thousands of emigrants from the UK to Canada. In winter Laurentic also served New York City . On
918-558: The 3,211 bars were salvaged by 1924; three more bars were found in the 1930s, while 22 remain unaccounted for. Laurentic ' s wreck is in the territorial waters of the Republic of Ireland and protected by Irish law . Dominion Line ran a transatlantic liner service between Liverpool, Quebec, Montreal and Boston . In 1902 the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM) took over Dominion Line. In 1905
969-570: The Japanese merchant ship Tenyo Maru off the Philippines and sent a boarding party aboard. They arrested nine Indian nationals "travelling without bonafides of any description", who were suspected of being Hindu nationalists . Japanese newspapers claimed that the action violated international law. The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs , Ishii Kikujirō , said that the Japanese Government
1020-405: The area occasionally detonating German mines that they found. After one mine was detonated only 2 nmi (4 km) away Damant suspended diving whenever minesweepers were within 5 nmi (9 km) of the wreck. Even so, a mine detonated 6 nmi (11 km) away gave one of the divers what Damant called "a severe blow". After two months Damant's crew completed their shaft and one part of
1071-464: The bitter cold for over twenty hours. Another boat, found 20 hours after the sinking, contained 17 men dead from hypothermia. In total 354 men were killed and 121 survived: 12 officers and 109 ratings. The survivors were given a civic reception in the Guildhall, Derry , where each man was given a ten-shilling note and a packet of cigarettes. In the following weeks corpses were washed ashore. 71 of
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#17328631406161122-475: The bunker. A dislodged beam struck Commander Mathias, fracturing his skull. On 2 December the crew finished removing coal from the hold and threw 150 tons of charred coal overboard. On 4 December Cdr Mathias died of his injury. Laurentic reached Birkenhead on 6 December. Laurentic ' s logbook records that on 23 December in Birkenhead she again loaded specie. This may refer to the 3,211 gold bars that she
1173-583: The city. Nationalist air raids damaged Argentina from 16 January and both ships on 23 January. Both ships were sunk at their moorings. Barcelona fell on 26 January and the Second Republic surrendered on 1 April. By 1940 the Nationalists had raised Argentina ' s wreck. She was scrapped in 1945 in Bilbao. SS Laurentic (1908) SS Laurentic was a British transatlantic ocean liner that
1224-681: The dead are buried in a mass grave in St Mura's parish churchyard, Fahan . One is buried at Buncrana. One washed ashore on Heisker in the Outer Hebrides , 150 miles away, and is buried there. A few of the dead are buried elsewhere to be near their families or place of birth, including Holywood and Tullylish in County Down , Arklow in County Wicklow and West Derby in Liverpool. Many of
1275-559: The dead have no grave but the sea. They are commemorated on Royal Navy monuments at Chatham , Plymouth and Portsmouth . The gold bullion had been stowed in Laurentic ' s second class baggage room. A crew of Royal Navy salvage divers was deployed to try to recover it. It was led by Captain Guybon Damant , who was a specialist in deep-water diving . The crew included Laurentic ' s own diver, P/O Augustus Dent, who had survived
1326-486: The earliest turbine ships, Victorian and Virginian had direct drive from their turbines to their screws . Virginian also acquired a reputation for rolling excessively in heavy seas. In addition, the earliest steam turbines used more bunker fuel than triple- or quadruple-expansion steam engines . In 1907 Dominion Line responded by ordering a pair of liners from Harland & Wolff . At almost 15,000 GRT each they would be larger than Victorian and Virginian ,
1377-415: The explosion. The officers and men lived up to the best traditions of the navy...The deaths were all due to exposure, owing to the coldness of the night. My own boat was almost full of water when we were picked up by a trawler the next morning, but all the men in the boat survived. Another boat, picked up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, contained five survivors and fifteen frozen bodies. They had been exposed to
1428-476: The first half of October patrolling the east coast of Canada and then south to Bermuda , where she spent 14–27 October in port and loaded specie . By 30 October she was back in Halifax, where she unloaded the specie and spent four weeks in port before leaving on 27 November for Liverpool. On 1 December it was discovered that coal in Laurentic ' s number two hold was on fire. Her crew started to remove coal from
1479-421: The gold gone. The wreck was noisy, indicating that parts of it were still moving. The companionway was beneath five decks and at risk of collapse. Damant abandoned this access route and directed his crew to use explosives to remove the mainmast and make a vertical shaft down through the wreck to where he expected the gold now to be. The work was dangerous, and further complicated by Royal Navy minesweepers in
1530-473: The largest ships in Dominion Line's fleet, and the largest ships on the route between Britain and Canada. Dominion Line planned to call the ships Alberta and Albany . But before the pair were completed, IMM transferred them to another of its subsidiaries, White Star Line, and they were renamed to conform with White Star naming policy. Alberta was launched in 10 September 1908 as Laurentic , and Albany
1581-472: The lifeboats died of hypothermia before reaching the shore. Local fishing boats rescued the exhausted and very cold survivors. About 45 minutes after the explosion Captain Norton, using an electric torch, searched the ship for survivors. He then boarded a lifeboat, and was the last to leave his ship. He stated: To the best of my knowledge, all the men got safely into the boats. The best of order prevailed after
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1632-511: The mouth of Lough Swilly. Laurentic was due to rendezvous with a destroyer escort off Fanad Head, but her commander, Captain Reginald Norton, chose to proceed without it. At 1755 hrs, just north of the lough, Laurentic struck a mine that had been laid by SM U-80 . It exploded abreast of Laurentic ' s foremast. 20 seconds later a second mine exploded abreast of her engine room, which disabled her dynamo and pumps. The crew
1683-412: The rival Allan Line introduced the world's first steam turbine ocean liners. RMS Victorian and Virginian were two of the swiftest ships on the route between Britain and Canada, and at more than 10,600 GRT each they were also the largest. The pair made such an impression that Allan Line won a valuable Canadian Government mail contract before the ships were even launched. Like all of
1734-548: The same engine combination for White Star Line 's Laurentic , launched in 1908, and for the Olympic -class ocean liners, the first two of which were launched in 1910 and 1911. CTE ordered a similar combination of triple-expansion engines and low-pressure turbine for Infanta Isabel de Borbon and Reina Victoria-Eugenia . Denny's gave Infanta Isabel de Borbon the same three-screw combination as Otaki . However, Swan, Hunter, experimenting with "a self-propelled model", had developed
1785-615: The same or similar names This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SS_Argentina&oldid=988669046 " Categories : Set index articles on ships Ship names Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata All set index articles SS Reina Victoria-Eugenia SS Reina Victoria-Eugenia
1836-424: The sinking. They found the wreck at a depth of 120 ft (37 m), listing 60 degrees to port. Initially the wreck was intact. Damant and his team used guncotton to blow open a watertight door called the "entry port" mid-way down the ship's side, and an iron gate in the companionway leading to the baggage room. A diver called EC Miller used a hammer and chisel to open the baggage room door. Each box of gold
1887-577: The slightly smaller Juan Sebastian Elcano and Marques de Comillas in 1928. By 1926 Reina Victoria-Eugenia was equipped with wireless direction finding . After the Second Spanish Republic was declared in 1931, CTE renamed those of its ships that it had named after members of the Spanish royal family . Infanta Isabel de Borbon became Uruguay and Reina Victoria-Eugenia became Argentina . The Spanish government had subsidised CTE to provide
1938-451: The turbine. Laurentic was not quite the first ship to have what came to be called "combination machinery". William Denny and Brothers launched the refrigerated cargo liner Otaki on 15 August 1908, less than a month before Laurentic , and completed her on 22 October, six months before Laurentic . However, Otaki lacked a sister ship for direct comparison. Laurentic and Megantic were sisters whose only significant difference
1989-545: The two. Denny's had built the refrigerated cargo liner Otaki which they had launched in 1908. Otaki was the first ship in the World to be propelled by a combination of reciprocating steam engines and steam turbines . Otaki had three screws . Her port and starboard screws were each powered by a triple-expansion engine . Exhaust steam from their low-pressure cylinders fed a single low-pressure turbine amidships that drove her middle screw. Harland and Wolff had adopted
2040-466: Was 12 to 15 percent less than Megantic ' s. This led IMM to specify a similar three-screw combination of two triple-expansion engines and one low-pressure turbine for the Olympic -class ocean liners that Harland & Wolff launched in 1910 and 1911. The White Star and Dominion Lines provided two ships each to run a weekly joint service between Liverpool and Canada. The White Star ships were Laurentic and Megantic . The Dominion Line ships were
2091-614: Was a steam ocean liner and mail ship launched in 1912 in England and operated by the Compañía Transatlántica Española (CTE). She and her sister ship Infanta Isabel de Borbon represented a significant modernisation of CTE's fleet of ageing and obsolescent ships. After the Second Spanish Republic was declared in 1931 Reina Victoria-Eugenia was renamed Argentina . She was laid up from 1932. In 1939
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2142-544: Was a German professor. The UK authorities allowed the German sailor to continue his journey once they were satisfied that he was under armed guard. But UK Foreign Office asked the Spanish government to give notice of future transfers of Axis internees by sea between Spanish territories, to prevent any risk of misunderstanding. After the war Infanta Isabel de Borbon and Reina Victoria-Eugenia reverted to sailing between Spain and
2193-455: Was armed with eight QF 6-inch naval guns and two 6-pounder guns . On 25 November 1914 she was commissioned as HMS Laurentic , with the pennant number M 71. In December 1914 Laurentic sailed from Liverpool via Sierra Leone and Lagos to Kamerun , where she assisted in the Kamerun campaign . In September the Royal Navy had captured several German merchant ships that had sought refuge in
2244-585: Was built in Belfast , Ireland , and launched in 1908. She is an early example of a ship whose propulsion combined reciprocating steam engines with a low-pressure steam turbine . Laurentic was one of a pair of sister ships that were ordered in 1907 by the Dominion Line but completed for the White Star Line . Her regular route was between Liverpool and Quebec City . In 1914 Laurentic served briefly as
2295-749: Was in the Indian Ocean off Mozambique heading for Durban , where she called on 2–4 August. She then crossed the Indian Ocean, coaling at Colombo in Ceylon on 18–19 August and reached Singapore on 25 August. From September 1915 to January 1916 Laurentic patrolled the Bay of Bengal, visiting Port Blair , the Hooghly River , the coast of Balasore and Rangoon . On 30–31 January she called at Singapore before sailing for Hong Kong . On 5 February Laurentic stopped
2346-832: Was investigating. On 22 February Laurentic reached Hong Kong. She patrolled Chinese waters until 15 March, then spent a week in Hong Kong before returning to Singapore, where she arrived on 30 March. In April 1916 Laurentic returned to Hong Kong, where she was refitted from 24 April to 2 June. She then returned to Singapore, made a brief patrol to Penang and back and on 28 June left Singapore for South Africa . Laurentic called at Simon's Town 17–19 July, bunkered in Cape Town on 20 July and then on 23–24 July loaded bullion to take to Canada . Laurentic left Cape Town on 25 July 1916, reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on 15 August and discharged her cargo of bullion. She spent September and
2397-535: Was launched three months later as Megantic . Despite the change of owner, Laurentic and Megantic were still to serve the route between Liverpool and Montreal. They were White Star Line's first ships on the route. Megantic was built with twin propellers driven by conventional quadruple-expansion engines, but Laurentic was built with three screws and a turbine drove her middle screw. Four-cylinder triple-expansion engines drove her port and starboard screws, and exhaust steam from their low-pressure cylinders drove
2448-410: Was only one foot by one foot by six inches (600 × 600 × 300 mm) but weighed 140 lb (64 kg). The weight, and the awkward angle of the wreck, made it hard to move each box to the entry port to be hoisted to the surface. In two days Miller managed to retrieve four boxes, each worth about £8,000. After the fourth box was raised a gale began which forced Damant to suspend work. The gale lasted
2499-505: Was secretly to carry to buy munitions from Canada and the USA. At the time they were worth £5 million. On 23 January 1917 she left Birkenhead . On the morning of 25 January she called at Buncrana in Lough Swilly to disembark four ratings with symptoms of yellow fever . At 1700 hrs Laurentic left Buncrana in a bitterly cold blizzard. There were reports that a U-boat had been sighted near
2550-464: Was their engines. This enabled IMM and Harland & Wolff to compare the two systems directly. Harland & Wolff built Laurentic on slipway number six of its South Yard in Belfast. She was completed on 15 April 1909 and Megantic followed on 3 June. Laurentic produced 20 percent more power than her sister for the same coal consumption. For the same power output, Laurentic ' s coal consumption
2601-416: Was unable to transmit a wireless distress message, but fired a distress rocket . Both explosions were on her port side, to which she soon listed 20 degrees, making it hard to launch her lifeboats. Despite the difficult conditions Laurentic ' s crew launched lifeboats and tried to row ashore, guided by Fanad Head Lighthouse. But the temperature dropped as low as −13 °C (9 °F), and many men in
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