Two six-cylinder H&W standard engines, developing 2,250 i.h.p. each at 115 r.p.m., having cylinders 740 mm. bore and 1,150 mm. stroke.
Official No.
145844
Registered
Liverpool
Fate
Scrapped
Sister of the Dorsetshire she was made her maiden voyage May 1922 on charter to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company on their North Pacific service which terminated at Vancouver.
In 1927 she was converted into a permanent troopship with accommodation for 1300 men and her first sailing was to China in the following October. At the end of her return voyage in the December she was delayed for eight days by gales in the Mediterranean and her full complement celebrated Christmas at sea regardless of the inclement weather.
In January 1928 she began trooping to Karachi which continued until May when she was laid up off Dartmouth. While she was trooping to China in 1931 she suffered an outbreak of influenza which affected 300 people but fortunately there were no deaths.
In September 1939 she was requisitioned and converted into HM Hospital Ship No.25 with 507 beds, 118 medical staff and 171 crew. She was present at the withdrawal from Narvik in April 1940 and on 6th December of the same year was bombarded from shore as her launches brought of the wounded at Tobruk.
In February 1941 she joined the Dorsetshire in evacuating the wounded from besieged Tobruk before a period of operation from the Red Sea to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand repatriating wounded soldiers.
On 7th April 1942, in the Mediterranean and carrying no patients, she was torpedoed on the starboard side forward by U boat U-453 with the loss of 7 lives. As she settled by the head and with a list her thirteen usable lifeboats took off the Royal Army Corps personnel and 114 crew members. The 64 medical staff and 2 stewardesses were put aboard a Greek destroyer and the crew reboarded her and managed to get her to Alexandria on the port engine and assisted by tugs.
During 1944-46 she sailed all over the world as a hospital ship finishing up in the Pacific. In February 1948 she was decommissioned and rebuilt by Harland & Wolff with accommodation for 550 passengers. On 12th November 1948 she commenced her first sailing from Liverpool to Australia in Bibby livery with 500 passengers on assisted passages. During a voyage in 1952 she broke down in the Mediterranean and limped home on one engine. In 1953 she briefly returned to trooping to East Africa during the Mau Mau troubles.
In 1954 was broken up by Thos. W. Ward and Barrow-in-Furness.
