HMAT Shropshire (His Majesty's Australian Transport), 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.
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