SS Almeda Star SS " Almeda Star , originally SS " Almeda , was a British turbine steamer of the Blue Star Line . She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship , providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London . She was built in 1926 , significantly enlarged in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1941 . Building and early career . Cammell Laird of Birkenhead built the ship , launching her on 29 June 1926 and completing her in December . She was launched under her original name of " Almeda " . As originally built she was long , had a beam of and a draught of . She had 32 oil - fired corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of heating three double - ended and two single - ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . Her boilers supplied steam at 200 lb / in to four Parsons steam turbines with a combined rating of 2 , 078 NHP or 13 , 880 shp . Her four turbines were single - reduction geared onto the shafts to drive her twin propellers at about 120 RPM . " Almeda " was painted in Blue Star Line ' s standard livery of the era . Her hull was black , her boot - topping red and her masts white . Her stokehold ventilators were black and her deck ventilators were white , and the insides of her ventilator cowls were red . She had two funnels and they were red with a black top , with a narrow white and a narrow black band and on each side a large blue star on a white disc . In her original form " Almeda " s funnels had a type of cowl called an " Admiralty top " . " Almeda " made her maiden voyage on 16 February 1927 , inaugurating Blue Star Line ' s route between London and Buenos Aires " via " Boulogne , Madeira , Tenerife , Rio de Janeiro , Santos and Montevideo . Her passage was scheduled to take 18 or 19 days . In the course of 1927 Cammell Laird completed two sister ships , SS " Andalucia " and SS " Arandora " . In 1929 " Arandora " was converted into a cruise ship by reducing her cargo space and enlarging her passenger accommodation , and the three sisters were renamed SS " Almeda Star " , and . Rebuilding . In 1935 Blue Star Line had " Almeda Star " and " Andalucia Star " lengthened by to to increase their cargo hold space . The new section in each ship was inserted forward of the accommodation block . The beam and draught remained the same but the depth was increased to and the original bow was replaced with a Maierform one . Steaming arrangements were reduced to 28 corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of heating three double - ended boilers and one single - ended boiler with a combined heating surface of . The combined rating of her turbines was reduced to 1 , 909 NHP . A change more visible externally was that the Admiralty tops were removed from " Almeda Star " s two funnels . War service and sinking . After the Second World War broke out in September 1939 " Almeda Star " continued to sail her route independently of convoys . On 22 December 1940 she was on the River Mersey in Liverpool when she was slightly damaged in an air raid . On 15 January she sailed from Liverpool bound for the River Plate , carrying 194 passengers including 142 members of the Fleet Air Arm " en route " to RNAS Piarco on Trinidad . They were 21 officers and 121 ratings from 749 , 750 and 752 squadrons . At 0745 hrs on 17 January 1941 " Almeda Star " was about north of Rockall in heavy seas when hit her amidships with one G7e torpedo , causing " Almeda Star " to stop . She did not sink so " U - 96 " fired again at 0805 and 0907 hrs , hitting " Almeda Star " in the stern and again amidships . The ship had launched four lifeboats but still had people on deck when " U - 96 " surfaced and opened fire on her with her 88 mm deck gun . Between 0932 and 0948 hrs the submarine fired 28 incendiary shells , about 15 of which hit " Almeda Star " and started small fires aboard . The fires soon went out so at 0955 hrs " U - 96 " hit the ship with a fourth torpedo , which exploded in her forepart . Within three minutes " Almeda Star " sank by her bow . " Almeda Star " had transmitted one distress message and the Royal Navy responded by sending seven destroyers to search the area . They found neither survivors , boats nor wreckage : all 360 people aboard were lost .