| Name: | LACONIA |
| Type: | Passenger Refrigerated Cargo Ship |
| Launched: | 09/04/1921 |
| Completed: | 01/1922 |
| Builder: | Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd |
| Yard: | Wallsend |
| Yard Number: | 1125 |
| Dimensions: | 19680grt, 11804nrt, 601.3 x 73.7 x 40.6ft |
| Engines: | 6 x Steam turbines (two sets of HP, IP & LP), 2561nhp |
| Engines by: | Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co Ltd, Wallsend |
| Propulsion: | 2 x Screws, 16.5knots |
| Reg Number: | 145925 |
| History: | |
| 10/04/1922 | Cunard Steam Ship Co Ltd, Liverpool |
| 1934 | Cunard - White Star Ltd, Liverpool |
| 12/09/1942 | Sank |
| Comments: | Built for the Liverpool to Boston and New York route |
| Accommodation for 350 x 1st, 350 x 2nd & 1500 x 3rd Class passengers | |
| 09/1939: Requisitioned by the Admiralty as an Armed Merchant Cruiser | |
| 11/1941: Converted for use as a troop transport | |
| 12/09/1942: Torpedoed & sunk by U-Boat U156, 700 miles south of Sierra Leone | |
| On a voyage from Suez via Table Bay to the UK carrying passengers | |
| The passengers included British & Polish soldiers and 1800 x Italian prisoners of war | |
| U-Boats & Vichy French ships tried to rescue the survivors | |
| but US bombers also tried to sink the U-Boats. About 1600 x people died |
Above photo is courtesy of Chris Howell
Above photo is courtesy of the Dickinson Album
Above photo is courtesy of Alexander Gmelin