 SS Rajputana
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Rajputana |
| Builder | Harland and Wolff, Greenock |
| Yard number | 661[1] |
| Laid down | 1925 |
| Launched | 6 August 1925 |
| Completed | 30 December 1925[1] |
| Acquired | September 1939 |
| Commissioned | December 1939 |
| Reclassified | Armed merchant cruiser |
| Homeport | London |
| Fate | Torpedoed and sunk by U-108 off Iceland, 13 April 1941, in position 65°50′N 27°25′W / 65.833°N 27.417°W |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 547 ft (166.7 m) |
| Beam | 71 ft (21.6 m) |
| Propulsion | Quad expansion steam engine |
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Complement | 323 (as armed cruiser) |
| Armament |
|
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.[2] Named after the Rajputana region of western India, she sailed on a regular route between England and British India.
She was requisitioned into the Royal Navy on the onset of World War II, outfitted in December 1939 at Yarrows, in Esquimalt, as an armed merchant cruiser and commissioned HMS Rajputana. The installation of eight six-inch guns gave her the firepower of a light cruiser without the armor protection. She was torpedoed and sunk off Iceland on 13 April 1941, after escorting a convoy across the North Atlantic.
- ^ a b McCluskie, Tom (2013). The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff. Stroud: The History Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780752488615.
- ^ P & O Line Ships (and technical data) from 1920 to 1930 Archived 30 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine