Asturias

Asturias (Yard No. 507) was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast in 1926, a passenger & cargo ship for Royal Mail Steam Packet Meat Transport Ltd. The ‘motorship look’ - streamlined profile, squat funnels with a cruiser stern - was an instant success with shipowners and the public alike. The vessel, along with her twin sister Alcantara, were the largest & most powerful motor liners in the world. Her four-cycle double acting diesel engines, the largest constructed to date, represented a significant engineering triumph, signalling as it did the ending of the steam powered era. During World War II, she was rebuilt as an armed merchant cruiser and later as a troopship. After the war, she continued to serve as a troop transport and an emigrant ship to Australia. Before being broken up she was lent to the Rank Organisation for use in the film “A Night To Remember” to depict Titanic in the life-boat lowering scenes.