TYNE BUILT SHIPS
  A history of Tyne shipbuilders and the ships that they built

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Name: LACONIA
Type: Passenger Refrigerated Cargo Ship
Launched: 09/04/1921
Completed: 01/1922
Builder: Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd
Yard: Wallsend
Yard Number: 1125
Dimensions: 19680grt, 11804nrt, 601.3 x 73.7 x 40.6ft
Engines: 6 x Steam turbines (two sets of HP, IP & LP), 2561nhp
Engines by: Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co Ltd, Wallsend
Propulsion: 2 x Screws, 16.5knots
Reg Number: 145925
History:
10/04/1922 Cunard Steam Ship Co Ltd, Liverpool
1934 Cunard - White Star Ltd, Liverpool
12/09/1942 Sank
Comments: Built for the Liverpool to Boston and New York route
Accommodation for 350 x 1st, 350 x 2nd & 1500 x 3rd Class passengers
09/1939: Requisitioned by the Admiralty as an Armed Merchant Cruiser
11/1941: Converted for use as a troop transport
12/09/1942: Torpedoed & sunk by U-Boat U156, 700 miles south of Sierra Leone
On a voyage from Suez via Table Bay to the UK carrying passengers
The passengers included British & Polish soldiers and 1800 x Italian prisoners of war
U-Boats & Vichy French ships tried to rescue the survivors
but US bombers also tried to sink the U-Boats. About 1600 x people died


Above photo is courtesy of Chris Howell

Above photo is courtesy of the Dickinson Album

Above photo is courtesy of Alexander Gmelin