HMS Argenta
HMS "Argenta (originally the American cargo ship SS "Argenta) was a prison ship of the British Royal Navy. Construction. The two deck steamer was laid down in July 1917 by the National Shipbuilding Company of Orange, Texas as Hull No. 245. Shortages of materials meant that she was wooden-hulled, with a steel keelson, stem and stern posts of oak, and timbers largely of yellow pine. This was due to shortages of metals. SS "Argenta" was launched in May 1919. Cargo ship. "Argenta"s career as a cargo ship was short. As early as November 1919, there were some  signs of leakage, and the ship was out of service from late 1921. Condemned and declared unseaworthy in May 1922, she was then sold for use as a prison ship (a prison hulk) by the British Royal Navy. Prison ship. During the 1920s, the vessel was used by the British government as a military base and prison ship for holding Irish Republicans as part of Britain's internment strategy following the events of "Bloody Sunday" in 1920. By February 1923, under the 1922 Special Powers Act the British were detaining 263 men on the "Argenta", which was moored in Belfast  Lough. This was supplemented with internment at other land based sites, such as Larne workhouse, Belfast Prison and Derry Gaol. Together, both the ship and the workhouse alone held 542 men without trial at the highest internment population level during June 1923. Conditions on the prison ship Argenta were "unbelievable" according to Denise Kleinrichert who wrote the hidden history of the 1920s' "floating gulag" in "Republican Internment and the Prison Ship "Argenta", 1922." Cloistered below decks in cages which held 50 internees, the prisoners were forced to use broken toilets, which overflowed frequently into their communal area. Deprived of tables , the already weakened men ate off the floor, frequently succumbing to disease and illness as a result. There were several hunger strikes, including a major strike involving upwards of 150 men in the winter of 1923. In November 1923 IRA leader Seamus Woods was arrested and charged with the assassination of a member of the new Northern Parliament (W.J. Twaddell - May 22, 1922) and held on the Argenta. Although Woods was found innocent of the Twaddell murder charge he continued to be held and was the last prisoner to be released from the Argenta (17 April 1924). Woods was then  served with a prohibition order which excluded him from Northern Ireland. In 2011 a rare and unusual autograph book from the "Argenta", with a large number of signatures of prisoners, almost all with Northern Ireland addresses, mostly late 1922, was auctioned by Mealys Rare Books Limited. Signatures include Mícheál mac Eochaidh, W. Quillan, Packie Murphy, J.P. Kearns, Michael Carraher, Charlie Magee, Peter Rafferty, Mick McIlhatton, Frankie Corr, Owen (Montague) Teague (Patrilineality; County Tyrone, Northern Ireland,) John Grimes, John Bell, Joseph McKenny, Michael O'Neill, Liam Ua Donngaile, Art Mac Partolon (quoting Shakespeare), F.G. Duffy, Jim Rooney, Seosamh O Cianain and Patrick  Gormley. An inscription from the book is: ‘When you are on some lonely road, Waiting some friends to see, Let your thoughts turn towards the Argenta, And sometimes think of me ..’ — Frankie Corr As a result of author Denise Kleinrichert's lobbying efforts, the files of all the internees — most of them named in an appendix to her book — are now available for viewing at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). See also. HMS Al Rawdah (1941)