RMS Andes was a steam turbine Royal Mail Ship, ocean liner, cruise ship, and the flagship of the Royal Mail Lines fleet. She was the second Royal Mail ship to be named after the South American Andes mountain range. The first RMS Andes was an A-class liner launched in 1913. In 1929 that RMS Andes was converted into a cruise ship and renamed Atlantis.
The second Andes was built in Belfast in 1937–39 and completed at the outbreak of the Second World War. The Admiralty almost immediately requisitioned her as a troop ship and had her converted to carry about 4,000 troops. In troop service she broke three speed records for long-distance voyages.
Andes was converted back into a civilian liner in 1947. She entered civilian service in 1948 on RMSP's premier liner route between Southampton, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. For seven years she worked the route full-time, but from 1955 the frequency of her liner voyages decreased and she spent an increasing proportion of her time cruising. In 1959–60 she was converted at Flushing, Netherlands into a full-time cruise ship. She was scrapped at Ghent in 1971.
Background In 1924 RMSP ordered two new ocean liners for its Southampton – South America route from Harland and Wolff in Belfast. At each, and were far larger than the "A-series" liners built for RMSP in 1903–16. And they were motor ships, then a relatively new form of propulsion in which Harland and Wolff had taken an early lead. But their cruising speed turned out to be only : well below the that the contract had specified.
Compagnie de navigation Sud-Atlantique had two liners on the route, Lutetia (1913) and Massilia (1920), that were smaller and older but at could offer a passage that was quicker by several days. Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft ("Hamburg South America Steamship Company") also competed on the route with the , . In 1927 Hamburg Süd strengthened its competition by introducing the liner , which not only matched the speed of the French ships but at also became the largest ship on the route between Europe and South America.
In 1931 the Royal Mail Case resulted in the jailing of RMSP chairman Lord Kylsant, and in 1932 the company was reconstituted as a new body, Royal Mail Lines, chaired by Lord Essendon. Essendon claimed that German, French and Italian competitors were running ships to South America at , giving a passage about five days quicker than RMSP. He urged RML directors to have Asturias and Alcantara re-engined with steam turbines to cruise at , and to order a new third ship of similar performance to augment the fleet. He also proposed to seek agreement with foreign competitors for a voluntary 19-knot speed limit on the route to give all operators enough fuel economy to cover their operating costs.
Directors approved the re-engining of Asturias and Alcantara, foreign competitors agreed to Essendon's voluntary speed limit, but in 1932–33 the Great Depression was acute and the Board rejected his proposal for a new ship. Harland and Wolff re-engined Asturias and Alcantara in 1934 and 1935 respectively.
Building In February 1935 RML began to consider replacing the ageing A-series ship , which had been transferred from liner service to cruising. The new ship was to be suited to both liner service and cruising, larger and quicker than Asturias and Alcantara, and able to cruise at . She would be almost as large as Hamburg Süds Cap Arcona, and marginally quicker. She would also have considerable cargo space, most of which would be insulated and refrigerated to ship meat and fruit from South America.
In November 1935 RML invited five shipbuilders to tender for the contract: John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, Harland and Wolff, Hawthorn Leslie and Company of Hebburn and Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson of Tyneside. Harland and Wolff's tender of £1,365,356 was the lowest, and RML negotiated this down to £1,360,000.
In March 1937 RML announced that the new ship would be called Andes. On 17 June that year Harland and Wolff laid her keel at Belfast. Passenger accommodation was originally projected as first and third classes, but during construction this was changed to first and second (or "intermediate tourist class"), with a total capacity of 607. The reclassification would better suit the cruising part of the ship's intended service. Other changes were made during construction. In autumn 1937 it was decided to add air conditioning to the first class dining room and foyer, which cost an additional £21,436.
Launch In September 1938 the Duchess of Kent accepted RML's invitation to launch Andes. However, there was unrest in Northern Ireland against high unemployment, and B Special police were on nightly patrols. In February 1939, on the advice of the Duke of Abercorn, then Governor of Northern Ireland, the Duke of Kent and his wife postponed their visit to the province. Instead Viscountess Craigavon, wife of Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Lord Craigavon, agreed to sponsor the ship. She launched Andes on 7 March 1939, in high wind and heavy rain. A short, silent Pathé News film shows the event. video of Viscountess Craigavon launching Andes After the launch, Lord Essendon complained that British re-armament had both increased shipbuilding costs and depressed the merchant shipping trade.
Equipment With her liner route linking Southampton and South America, Andes was built to cover long distances without resupply. Her fuel capacity was specified to be "not less than 4,950 tons", and she had bunker oil tanks in her double bottom, aft peak, and between her machinery space and No. 3 hold. Her original fresh water capacity was nearly 2,500 tons, with tanks in her double bottom, forepeak, No. 1 hold, and between and beside her propeller shaft tunnels.
After Asturias and Alcantaras embarrassing and costly under-performance as motor ships, Andes was engined with steam turbines. She had three 485-lbf/in2 water tube boilers, each heated by seven oil-burning forced-draught furnaces. Their total heating surface was and their working pressure was 430 lbf/in2. They supplied superheated steam to six turbines designed by CA Parsons & Co and built by Harland and Wolff. The turbines had three stages of steam expansion for ahead motion and two for astern. They were single-reduction geared to two propeller shafts and combined to give the ship 5,599 NHP. G & J Weir regenerative condensers returned condensate to the boilers at .
Andes was built with five cargo holds. Parts of holds 1, 3 and 5 and all of holds 2 and 4 were insulated and refrigerated. Electric cranes served holds 1, 4 and 5; derricks served holds 2 and 3.
The ship was built with navigation equipment including a semi-balanced rudder, electro-hydraulic steering gear, an automatic helmsman, wireless direction finding equipment, an echo sounding device, and Kelvite and Husun compasses.
As built, Andes had 14 lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,174 people. There were two , motor boats, ten lifeboats and two lifeboats. All were mounted on Taylor's patent gravity davits.
Pasteur While Andes was being built, Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique intensified potential competition by also ordering a new liner for the South American route. was launched in February 1938, 13 months before Andes. At , with a service speed of and top speed of Pasteur was larger and quicker than Andes and Cap Arcona, and would certainly have broken the latter's records for size and speed. But Pasteur was not completed until August 1939, and just weeks later the Second World War began. Pasteurs maiden voyage to Buenos Aires was cancelled, and she was instead commissioned for war-related service.
Troop ship 1939–47 Andes sea trials were scheduled for 29–31 August 1939. She was scheduled to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires on 26 September, which was the centenary of RMSP's foundation. But her sea trials were postponed, and when the UK and France declared war on Germany on 3 September the Senior Naval Officer at Belfast cancelled them. RML agreed to accept her without sea trials, and Harland and Wolff handed her over at midnight on 24 September.
Andes did make her first voyage on 26 September, but instead of being a passenger voyage from Southampton to South America it was a short crossing unladen from Belfast Lough to Holy Loch, where on 21 November the Admiralty requisitioned her to be a troop ship. She then went to Liverpool where she arrived on 26 November for modifications. Some of her passenger liner fittings were removed and stored and the remainder were panelled over with plywood.
On 9 December 1939 Andes began her first voyage as a troopship, crossing the North Atlantic, mostly unescorted, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. At this stage in the war her only armament was a single Hotchkiss Mle 1897 machine gun with very little ammunition. In the course of the war her armament was radically improved.
In Halifax joined the RML liner , Orient Line ships and , Pacific Steam Navigation Co liner and Gdynia – America Line ships and . Between them the seven ships embarked 8,152 Canadian troops, including 1,358 of The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada aboard Andes.
The troop ships left Halifax on 22 December as Convoy TC 2, with an escort of Royal Navy, Canadian and French destroyers led by the Royal Navy battleship and . More escorts joined the convoy in the Western Approaches on 28 and 29 December, and it reached the Firth of Clyde on 30 December. TC 2's passengers were the first troops from any Commonwealth nation to reach the UK in the Second World War.
Far East and Australasia
On 31 January 1940 Andes left Gourock carrying 3,400 people on a trooping voyage to the Pacific Ocean. She called at Marseille, Port Said, Colombo, Singapore, and reached Hong Kong on 2 March 1940.
Andes then turned south to New Zealand, reached Wellington on 20 March and left Lyttelton on 1 May. She was one of seven large troop ships that then formed Convoy US 3. The others were the Cunard-White Star liners , and and the Canadian Pacific liners , and . The led US 3's escorts. Between them the seven troop ships brought 17,576 military personnel to the UK via Cape Town and Freetown, of whom 1,508 sailed on Andes. At Cape Town another 100 people joined Andes, many of them sleeping on deck. From there to the UK she averaged and at times reached . Convoy US 3 reached the Clyde on 16 June.
Iceland Since May 1940 the UK had occupied Iceland. On 24 June Andes left the Clyde and sailed to Akureyri in northern Iceland. She called at Seyðisfjörður in eastern Iceland and got back to the Clyde on 2 July.
Twice to Egypt via South Africa
Andes next voyage was to Suez, going via South Africa to avoid the Mediterranean Sea because on 10 June Italy had entered the War. She left the Clyde on 7 August as part of Convoy WS 2, which included eight other troop ships: Batory, Empress of Britain and Empress of Canada again, plus Cunard's , Furness, Withy's Monarch of Bermuda, Orient Line's and P&O's and . Escorts included three s, a light cruiser and six Royal Navy destroyers.
The next day the convoy split into fast and slow sections, with the troop ships sailing in the fast section, WS 2F. This called at Freetown a week later and reached Cape Town on 25 August. Most of the troop ships, including Andes, left Cape Town on 30 August as part of Convoy WS 2A, which dispersed in the Indian Ocean a fortnight later. In September she reached Suez. Enemy aircraft bombed the port while Andes was there but she was not hit. It was the only time in the war that she came under fire.