The last of a class of ships built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, for the Royal Mail Line’s (RML) South American service. 'Almanzora' was launched in 1914 and commissioned in the following year,  an armed merchant cruiser, attached to the Tenth Cruiser Squadron. She was engaged mainly in convoy service in the North and Central Atlantic. Reconditioned after war service, ‘Almanzora’ made her maiden voyage as a passenger liner in 1920. Her first-class accommodation was elaborately decorated in the Tudor and Jacobean styles and she also had a winter garden, a new feature for a ship on the South American line. After an uneventful peacetime career, she was on her last voyage from South America in 1939 when war broke out. She was immediately requisitioned as a troopship and during her war service, ‘Almanzora’ made many voyages to South and East Africa, later taking part in the Sicilian landings. She survived both a collision with another RML ship, ‘Orduna’ (see SLR1421), in the Red Sea, and one with a German aircraft, which crashed into her hull. Her final task was the repatriation of European nationals after the end of the war, and took part in the repatriation of Russians from Britain to the port of Odessa in April 1945. She was broken up at Blythe, Scotland, in 1948.