RMS Laconia ( 1921 ) The second RMS " Laconia " was a Cunard ocean liner , built by Swan , Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911 - 1917 " Laconia " . The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921 , and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York . Like her predecessor , sunk during the First World War , this " Laconia " was also destroyed by a German U - boat . The U - boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of " Laconia " , which involved additional German U - boats and became known as the Laconia incident . Description . " Laconia " was long , with a beam of . She had a depth of and a draught of . She was powered by six steam turbines of 2 , 561 nhp , which drove twin screw propellors via double reduction gearing . The turbines were made by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company , Newcastle upon Tyne . In addition to her passenger accommodation , " Laconia " had ( this figure seems way too large - equivalent to the capacity of a very large super tanker ? ) of refrigerated cargo space . Early career . " Laconia " was built by Swan , Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd , Newcastle upon Tyne . Launched on 9 April 1921 , she was completed in January 1922 . Her port of registry was Liverpool . The code letters KLWT and United Kingdom Official Number 145925 were allocated . As a Royal Mail Ship , " Laconia " was entitled to display the Royal Mail " crown " logo as a part of its crest . In January 1923 " Laconia " began the first around - the - world cruise , which lasted 130 days and called at 22 ports . On 8 September 1925 , " Laconia " collided with the British schooner " Lucia P . Dow " in the Atlantic Ocean east of Nantucket , Massachusetts , United States . " Laconia " towed the schooner for before handing the tow over to the American tug " Resolute " . In 1934 , her code letters were changed to GJCD . On 24 September 1934 " Laconia " was involved in a collision off the US coast , while travelling from Boston to New York in dense fog . It rammed into the port side of , a US freighter . Both ships suffered serious damage but were able to proceed under their own steam . " Laconia " returned to New York for repairs , and resumed cruising in 1935 . Drafted into war service . On 4 September 1939 , " Laconia " was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser . By January 1940 she had been fitted with eight and two three - inch high - angle guns . After trials off the Isle of Wight , she embarked gold bullion and sailed for Portland , Maine and Halifax , Nova Scotia on 23 January . She spent the next few months escorting convoys to Bermuda and to points in the mid - Atlantic , where they would join up with other convoys . On 9 June , she ran aground in the Bedford Basin at Halifax , suffering considerable damage , and repairs were not completed till the end of July . In October her passenger accommodation was dismantled and some areas filled with oil drums to provide extra buoyancy so that she would stay afloat longer if torpedoed . During the period June – August 1941 " Laconia " returned to St John , New Brunswick and was refitted , then returned to Liverpool to be used as a troop transport for the rest of the war . On 12 September 1941 , she arrived at Bidston Dock , Birkenhead and was taken over by Cammell Laird and Company to be converted . By early 1942 the work was complete , and for the next six months she made trooping voyages to the Middle East . On one such voyage the ship was used to carry prisoners of war , mainly Italian . She travelled to Cape Town and then set a course for Freetown , following a zigzag course and undertaking evasive steering during the night . Final moments . On 12 September 1942 , at 8 : 10 pm , 130 miles north - northeast of Ascension Island , " Laconia " was hit on the starboard side by a torpedo fired by U - boat " U - 156 " . There was an explosion in the hold and many of the Italian prisoners aboard were killed instantly . The vessel immediately took a list to starboard and settled heavily by the stern . Captain Rudolph Sharp , who had also commanded another famous Cunard liner , " Lancastria " when she was sunk by enemy action , was gaining control over the situation when a second torpedo hit Number Two hold . At the time of the attack , the " Laconia " was carrying 268 British soldiers , 160 Polish soldiers ( who were on guard ) , 80 civilians , and 1 , 800 Italian prisoners of war . Captain Sharp ordered the ship abandoned and the women , children and injured taken into the lifeboats first . By this time , the ship ' s stern deck was awash . Some of the 32 lifeboats had been destroyed by the explosions and some surviving Italian prisoners tried to rush the lowering of the ones that remained . The efforts of the Polish guards were instrumental in controlling the chaotic situation on board and saved many lives . At 9 : 11 pm " Laconia " sank , stern first , her bow rising to be vertical , with Sharp himself and many of the Italian prisoners still on board . The prospects for those who escaped the ship were only slightly better ; sharks were common in the area and the lifeboats were adrift in the mid - Atlantic with little hope of rescue . However , before " Laconia " went down , " U - 156 " surfaced . The U - boat ' s efforts to rescue survivors of its own attack began what came to be known as the " Laconia " incident . When " Kapitänleutnant " Werner Hartenstein , commanding officer of " U - 156 " , realized civilians and prisoners of war were on board , he surfaced to rescue survivors , and asked " BdU " ( the U - Boat Command in Germany ) for help . Several U - Boats were dispatched ; all flew Red Cross flags , and signalled by radio that a rescue operation was underway . The next morning , a U . S . B - 24 Liberator plane sighted the rescue efforts . Hartenstein signaled the pilot for assistance , who then notified the American base on Ascension Island of the situation . The senior officer on duty there , Robert C . Richardson III , unaware of the Germans ' radio message , ordered that the U - boats be attacked . Despite the Red Cross flags , the survivors crowded on the submarines ' decks and the towed lifeboats , the B - 24 then started making attack runs on " U - 156 " . The Germans ordered their submarines to dive , abandoning many survivors . After the incident , Admiral Karl Dönitz issued the Laconia Order , henceforth ordering his commanders not to rescue survivors after attacks . Vichy French ships rescued 1 , 083 persons from the lifeboats and took aboard those picked up by the four submarines , and in all around 1 , 500 survived the sinking . Other sources state that only 1 , 104 survived and an estimated 1 , 649 persons died . Amongst the French ships involved in the rescue were , and . Media . On 6 and 7 January 2011 , BBC2 in the United Kingdom broadcast " The Sinking of the Laconia " , a two - part dramatisation of the sinking of the " Laconia " .