Athenia
1939
(Rainier Grouls RG-38)
- Type: Passenger / general cargo
- Displacement: 13,581 tons
- Dimensions: 538-2 x 66-5 x 27-8 ft.
- Machinery: Steam turbine, twin screw = 15.5 knots
- Passengers: 1552 (314 cabin class, 310 tourist class, 928 third class)
- Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland, 1923
- Service: Athenia and sister Letitia were built for Donaldson Bros. service between Glasgow and Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal, with winter sailings to Halifax. Originally accommodated 400 cabin class and 1000 third class. Accommodation remodeled in 1927 on both vessels. Athenia had the dubious distinction of being the first British merchant ship sunk during World War II, torpedoed 3 Sep 1939 by German submarine U-30. She sank the next day with the loss of 93 passengers and 14 crew out of 1418 on board. Letitia survived the war after service as an armed merchant cruiser, hospital ship and troopship. She became the Australian emigrant carrier Empire Brent in 1948, and from 1951 to 1959 she carried emigrants to New Zealand under the name Captain Cook.
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