SS Athenia (1922)

56°44′N 14°5′W / 56.733°N 14.083°W / 56.733; -14.083

Athenia in Montreal Harbour in 1933
History
United Kingdom
Name	Athenia
Namesake	Athena
Owner	Anchor-Donaldson Line (1923–1935) Donaldson Atlantic Line (1935–1939)
Port of registry	Glasgow
Builder	Fairfield SB & Eng Co, Govan
Yard number	596
Launched	28 January 1922
Completed	19 April 1923
Identification	UK official number 146330 code letters KNRT (until 1933) Call sign GFDM (from 1934)
Fate	Sunk by U-30, 3 September 1939
Notes	First UK ship sunk by Germany in World War II
General characteristics
Tonnage	13,465 GRT tonnage under deck 10,200 8,118 NRT
Length	526.3 ft (160.4 m) p/p
Beam	66.4 ft (20.2 m)
Depth	38.1 ft (11.6 m)
Decks	3
Propulsion	6 × steam turbines; twin screws
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Capacity	As built 516 cabin class, 1,000 3rd class
Sensors and processing systems	wireless direction finding (by 1930) echo sounding device (by 1934) gyrocompass (by 1934)
Notes	sister ship: Letitia

SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line, which later became the Donaldson Atlantic Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.

Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946.

She was the second Donaldson ship of that name to be torpedoed and sunk off Inishtrahull by a German submarine. The earlier Athenia (1903) was similarly attacked and sunk in 1917.^[1]