RMS Alaunia (1913)

RMS Alaunia was an ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line. It was built in 1913 at Greenrock and measured 13,405 tons gross. She was one of the three ships Cunard ordered Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company to build. These three ships were RMS Andania (1913), Alaunia, and RMS Aurania (1916). The Alaunia was the second of these three ships. She and her sisters had only 2nd class and 3rd class.

Alaunia was launched on 9 June 1913, and made her maiden voyage on 27 December 1913. When World War I began, she was requisitioned as a troopship. The HMS Alaunia was the first Cunard ship to transport Canadian troops. She was sent in the Gallipoli campaign by the summer of 1915. Then she worked on carrying troops to Bombay later the same year. She returned to the North Atlantic and carried troops from Canada and America in 1916.

On 19 September 1916, when she made her voyage from London to New York, she struck a mine on 19 October 1916 off the Royal Sovereign Lightship of Hastings, East Sussex laid earlier that day by SMU UC-16 After attempts to beach the ship and tow her to shore with tugs, the captain realized the ship was lost and finally gave the order to abandon ship. Despite the sinking of the vessel, only two crew members lost their lives. Today, the wreck of the Alaunia lies on her port side in the English Channel in 15 metres of water.