Launched as the 15 knots twin-screw ANTONIA for the Cunard White Star S. S. Company Limited. Maiden voyage took place on15th June 1922 when she sailed from London for Southampton-Quebec-Montreal. Thereafter, until 1940, she mainly sailed from European ports to the USA, mainly New York.
Engraved HMS Antonia with Fleur-de-Lis below. the government broad arrow is engraved on the rear. Antonia was originally built as a passenger liner for the Curnard Line operating from Liverpool to Canada. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was reaquisitioned by the Royal Navy an converted for war use. In 1940 she was taken over as a armed merchant cruiser, serving in the North Atlantic convoy escort duties during the critical early years of the Battle of the North Atlantic. By 1942, she was reassigned as a troopship, carrying Allied solders across the Atlantic and various theaters of war. She served in this capacity for the remainder of the conflict, transporting troops safely through U-boat-infested-waters. After the war, she was returned to Cunard and later scrapped in 1948.
