The UK
Admiralty assumed ownership of ''
, and renamed her Lucia
after the island to which Berwick'' escorted her. In 1915 the Admiralty registered her in
London as a
merchant ship, with the UK
official number 136789 and code letters JKFV. That January, the Admiralty appointed Elder, Dempster & Co to
manage her. In 1916 the Clyde Shipbuilding Company converted
Lucia into a submarine depot ship. She was completed in August 1916. The Royal Navy
commissioned her as HMS
Lucia, with a
complement of 245 officers and ratings. She served with the
10th Submarine Flotilla in the
River Tees. Her
tender was the
naval trawler Repton. By January 1918 her
pennant number was P.2A. She was decommissioned in 1918. On 8 December 1919
Lucia was recommissioned. On 19 June 1920 there was an incident in which five members of her complement died: three
petty officers, a
leading seaman and an
able seaman. From 1922 until 1936
Lucia was a depot ship for
L-class submarines. On 26 October 1926 she and five L-class submarines of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla left Malta for
Devonport, where they were due to arrive in 7 November.
Lucia was
paid off into dockyard control at
Chatham Dockyard on 9 December. On 4 January 1931, 30 members of
Lucias complement refused orders because bad weather and a forthcoming
exercise had prevented them from being offered weekend leave. On 20 January four of the men were
court-martialled for
mutiny. From 1936 to 1939
Lucia was a depot ship for mainly
S-class submarines. and
Eritrea that April and August. On 5 January 1942 she left Bombay (now
Mumbai) for
Colombo, where she arrived five days later. In the
Easter Sunday Raid on 5 April 1942, 70
dive bombers from
Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers attacked Colombo.
Lucia was damaged, and one of her crew was killed. Later in the war,
Lucia became a "small ship" repair ship, serving ships up to the size of
destroyers. and March 1943. She visited
Durban in August 1943, and
Port Elizabeth that December. She was back in Colombo by June 1945. ==
Sinai==