SS Laurentic (1927)

For other ships of the same name, see SS Laurentic.

SS Laurentic (II)
Career
Name:	SS Laurentic
Owner:	White Star Line
Route:	Liverpool—Quebec City—Montreal
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	470
Launched:	16 June 1927
Completed:	1 November 1927
Maiden voyage:	12 November 1927
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk by U-99 off Northern Ireland on 3 November 1940.
General characteristics
Tonnage:	18,724 Gross Register Tonnage
Propulsion:	Triple Expansion plus Low Pressure Turbines by builders.
Speed:	16 knots
Capacity:	594-Cabin Class 406-Tourist Class 500-3rd Class

The second SS Laurentic was an 18,724-ton ocean liner built in 1927 by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, for the White Star Line. She was launched on 16 June 1927 and completed on November 1st. She made her maiden voyage on 12 November 1927 from Liverpool to New York. She was built for the Liverpool—Quebec City—Montreal route and was largely confined to it and made her first voyage on that route on 27 April 1928. She collided with Lurigethan of the H. E. Moss Line in Belle Isle Strait on 3 October 1932. Fortunately, both ships survived the collision. In 1934, Cunard Line and White Star Line merged and form Cunard White Star Line. The Laurentic was rammed by the Blue Star liner Napier Star in the fog in the Irish Sea on 18 August 1935. Then she was laid up at Birkenhead in December 1935. Upon the outbreak of World War II, she made one voyage to Palestine as troop transport on 14 September 1939 and she was commissioned as HMS Laurentic, an armed merchant cruiser, with pennant number F51. Laurentic was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-99 on 3 November 1940 off Bloody Foreland, County Donegal, Ireland, but she remained afloat. But after two more torpedoes hit her, she sank with the loss of 49 lives.

Sinking

At 10:02 pm on 3 November 1940, Type VII U-boat U-99 under the command of Otto Kretschmer encountered three large ships on an eastward course. These comprised the 6000-ton merchant steamer SS Casanare, the Laurentic, and HMS Patroclus.

References

• http://www.geocities.com/White_Star_Liners/Laurentic-II.html