HMS Artifex

As one of the post-Great War "A-class" ocean liners, RMS Aurania was built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. at their Wallsend-on-Tyne yard for Cunard and launched on 6 February 1924. Her sisters included RMS Alaunia and RMS Ausonia. With the merger of Cunard and the White Star Line in 1933, she continued to serve with the resulting company, Cunard White Star Ltd. ==War career==

With war looming, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 30 August 1939 and converted to serve as an armed merchant cruiser, which involved the fitting of a number of guns. She was straggling behind the convoy with a group of four other armed merchant cruisers and was sighted by , under the command of Reinhard Hardegen. Work began that December and lasted until July 1944. She was commissioned in August as HMS Artifex and after carrying out trials was prepared for service in the Pacific theatre. She sailed to join the British Pacific Fleet in early 1945, and by March was being deployed out of Manus in the Admiralty Islands, supporting the ships of Task Force 57. Artifex took passage to Leyte on 19 April to support ships involved in the attacks against the airfields in the Sakishima-Gunto Islands. She remained here throughout April and much of May, sailing for Manus again on 20 May. She remained here for the rest of the war. On being released from the British Pacific Fleet in September she sailed back to Britain. ==Post-war==

Artifex was kept in commission after her return and was assigned to the training establishment at Rosyth, which was used to train artificer apprentices. ==Notes==