SS Arvonian SS " Arvonian " was a British freighter built in 1905 , with a long and complex history under several names . She served in the British merchant marine , and was commissioned in the United States and British navies during World War I , before returning to merchant service , and eventually being sold to Latvia . In World War II she was taken over by the Soviet Union , then captured by Germany . Post - war she sailed under the Latvian and Costa Rican flags , until finally scrapped in West Germany in 1958 . Service history . The ship was built by the Richardson , Duck & Co . shipyard in Stockton - on - Tees , England , and launched on 1 August 1905 as Rosedale . A month later , on 1 September 1905 she was sold to the Golden Cross Line of , and renamed Arvonian . In August 1917 the " Arvonian " was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted into Q - ship , designed to decoy U - boat s into attacking before revealing her concealed weaponry . She was armed with three 4 - inch guns , three 12 - pounder guns , two . 30 - calibre machine guns and four 18 - inch torpedo tubes . On 27 November 1917 she was handed over to the United States Navy by the Admiralty " for war purposes " , and commissioned as USS " Arvonian the same day , with Commander David C . Hanrahan in command . The ship was fitted out at HMNB Devonport and conducted ship ' s drills in Plymouth Sound with a crew composed of volunteers from American warships in European waters . On 18 December she was renamed USS " Santee , and arrived at Queenstown in southern Ireland the next day . At 16 : 00 on 27 December , " Santee " sailed from Queenstown bound for Bantry Bay to carry out exercises . At 20 : 45 she was south of Kinsale , when she was struck on the port side by a torpedo fired by , under the command of " Kapitänleutnant " Victor Dieckmann . Hanrahan ordered his men to battle stations and sent away the " panic party , " a group of sailors who played the role of a crew precipitously abandoning their sinking vessel . They left the ship , as Hanrahan later reported , in " fine panicy [ sic ] style " , in an attempt to lure the enemy to the surface . After two and a half hours fruitlessly waiting for the U - boat to show herself , Hanrahan radioed for help . Destroyers and tugs were sent to her aid , and the ship was towed back to Queenstown , while the destroyers and rescued the boats of " Santee " s " panic party . " After repairs at Queenstown " Santee " was towed back to Devonport by 8 February . She was decommissioned on 8 April 1918 and returned to the Admiralty . Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS " Bendish " , she was sent to Gibraltar for further Q - ship operations . The ship reverted her former name , " Arvonian " , in July 1919 and in November was sold to the Rhondda Shipping & Coal Exporting Co . Ltd , and re - named Brookvale . In 1928 she was sold to a Latvian shipping company , and renamed Spīdola . She came under Russian control after the occupation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union in June 1940 , and was soon transferred to the state - controlled Latvian Shipping Company . On 27 July 1941 she was captured by the Germans at Liepaja , and re - named Rudau . On 9 October 1944 she was part of a convoy attacked by Beaufighters from No . 404 Squadron RCAF off the southern coast of Norway , and was towed into Bergen for repairs . In 1947 she returned to service under the name " Spīdola " , and was transferred to the Costa Rican registry in the 1950s . She was eventually sold to the German shipbreaking company Walter Ritscher GmbH , and scrapped at Hamburg in 1958 . External links .