Technical Data

Tonnage: 18,724 (Gross)

Passengers: 1,500 people

Built by Harland & Wolff (Belfast), Laurentic(2) was delivered in 1927 for the White Star's Liverpool - Quebec and Montreal route. She was the only White Star ship ever to be built to a fixed price and was the company's last coal burner.

On 5th December, 1930, during the Great Depression, WS cancelled a planned January 1931 Mediterranean cruise due to poor bookings. Laurentic's passengers were transferred to Homeric. Laurentic was laid up for the winter.

In July 1935, she was rammed by the Napier Star off the Skerries with the loss of 6 lives.

30 December 1936: Laurentic II ends her final voyage in White Star

colors, arriving at Southampton with 1,500 British troops returning from

Palestine. She's then laid up in the River Test. (Source: Kohler's

In 1939 she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser and on 29th November of that year, she intercepted HAPAG's Antiochia off Iceland. Antiochia scuttled herself and was used for target practice as she went down.

On November 3rd, 1940 at 21.40, the allied vessel Casanare was torpedoed by the German submarine U-99. The distress calls were intercepted by the Laurentic, which steamed to the rescue. The U-99 was still looming in the surrounding waters and managed to hit the Laurentic at 22.50 off the Bloody Foreland. Another two torpedoes followed the original one, and the ship sunk. Of the 416 people on board, 367 managed to escape. 49 were lost.