She travelled to Cape Town and then set a course for Freetown, following a zigzag course and undertaking evasive steering during the night. On one such voyage the ship was used to carry prisoners of war, mainly Italian. By early 1942 the work was complete, and for the next six months she made trooping voyages to the Middle East. On 12 September 1941, she arrived at Bidston Dock, Birkenhead and was taken over by Cammell Laird and Company to be converted. In October her passenger accommodation was dismantled and some areas filled with oil drums to provide extra buoyancy so that she would stay afloat longer if torpedoed.ĭuring the period June–August 1941 Laconia returned to St John, New Brunswick and was refitted, then returned to Liverpool to be used as a troop transport for the rest of the war. On 9 June, she ran aground in the Bedford Basin at Halifax, suffering considerable damage, and repairs were not completed till the end of July. She spent the next few months escorting convoys to Bermuda and to points in the mid-Atlantic, where they would join up with other convoys. After trials off the Isle of Wight, she embarked gold bullion and sailed for Portland, Maine and Halifax, Nova Scotia on 23 January. By January 1940 she had been fitted with eight six-inch guns and two three-inch high-angle guns. On 4 September 1939, the Admiralty requisitioned Laconia and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser. The U-boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the Laconia incident.Īustralians manning a 6-inch gun, 22 March 1942 Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,658 people were killed when the Laconia sank. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and later a troopship. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on from Southampton to New York City. The second RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911–1917 Laconia. 6 steam turbines, double reduction gearedĥ4,089 cubic feet (1,531.6 m 3) refrigerated cargo
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