HMAT Shropshire

HMAT Shropshire, originally SS Shropshire, was a 11,911-ton vessel, built by John Brown and Company in Clydebank, Glasgow, for the Federal [Steam Navigation Company]. She was employed on passenger and meat trade between New Zealand and Great Britain, but due to the First World War, she was converted into a troopship. She was leased by the Australian Commonwealth Government until 5 August 1917, when the British Admiralty took over control of the ship.

Time as a troopship

HMAT Shropshire undertook the following journeys as a troopship in World War I:

20 October 1914 from Melbourne
17/20 March 1915 from Sydney/Melbourne to Alexandria
20 August 1915 from Sydney
31 March 1916 from Fremantle to Port Suez
25 September 1916 from Melbourne
11 May 1917 from Melbourne

Later use and fate

In 1923, the ship was renamed Rotorua for the New Zealand Shipping Company. On 11 December 1940, it became a casualty of World War Two, when it was torpedoed by the German U-boat submarine off St Kilda, with 104 rescued and 21 lives lost.