Shipping editor Keith Hamilton takes a voyage back in time and recalls a liner from Southampton's past. Read about the ships that have contributed to Southampton's rich shipping heritage and the stories behind them.
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LUXURY LINER: Arandora Star which sailed from Southampton during the 1930s

A particularly graceful liner operating from Southampton in the 1930s on full-time cruising was Blue Star Line's 15,000-ton Arandora Star.

Her voyages were definitely in the luxury class with cruises costing anything from 22 to 34 guineas, a large amount of money in those days.

Built at Birkenhead in 1927, the liner's first name was simply Arandora with the "Star'' added two years later to avoid confusion with Royal Mail Ships, whose names mostly began and ended with the letter "A.'' Her cruising programme formed mostly the same pattern year after year. A Christmas cruise to Madeira and West Africa was followed by a series of West Indian voyages. Easter always marked the start of the Mediterranean season and the northern capitals were visited on summer cruises, after which Arandora Star returned to the Mediterranean for the autumn.

Annual overhauls were carried out in Southampton, and then the cruising programme began all over again.

The liner carried 400 passengers and the same number of crew, who stayed with the ship for voyage after voyage.

When the Second World War broke out she was called up for trooping duties and refitted to carry 1,700 men. She was torpedoed and sank in July, 1940, bound from Liverpool for Canada with a full complement of German and Italian internees. About half the passengers and crew lost their lives.

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