SS Automedon

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History
United Kingdom
Name	Automedon
Namesake	Automedon
Owner	Ocean Steamship Co Ltd
Operator	Alfred Holt & Co
Port of registry	Liverpool
Builder	Palmers Sb and Iron Co, Jarrow
Yard number	920
Launched	4 December 1921
Completed	March 1922
Identification	UK official number 147203 Code letters KNQG (until 1933) Call sign GBZR (1934 onward)
Fate	scuttled 11 November 1940 2°34′N 70°56′E / 2.567°N 70.933°E / 2.567; 70.933
General characteristics
Type	refrigerated cargo ship
Tonnage	1930: 7,628 GRT, 4,782 NRT 1933: 7,607 GRT, 4,772 NRT 1934: 7,528 GRT, 4,724 NRT
Length	459.4 ft (140.0 m)
Beam	58.4 ft (17.8 m)
Draught	26 ft 2 in (7.98 m)
Depth	32.6 ft (9.9 m)
Decks	2
Installed power	6,000 SHP
Propulsion	2 × steam turbines 1 × screw
Speed	14.5 knots (27 km/h)
Capacity	111,000 cubic feet (3,143 m3)
Sensors and processing systems	From 1934: wireless direction finding
Notes	One of a class of 11 sister ships

SS Automedon was a Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo steamship. She was launched in 1921 on the River Tyne as one of a class of 11 ships to replace many of Blue Funnel's losses in the First World War.

A converted German auxiliary cruiser and merchant raider Atlantis captured and scuttled Automedon in 1940 in the Indian Ocean.^[1] Her capture is notable because she was carrying top secret documents addressed to the British Far East Command. Their capture may have influenced Japan's decision to enter the Second World War.

Automedon was Achilles' charioteer in Homer's Iliad. This was the first of three Blue Funnel Line ships to be named after him. The second was a motor ship launched in 1949 and scrapped in 1972.^[2] The third was a motor ship launched in 1948 as Cyclops, renamed Automedon in 1975 and scrapped in 1977.^[3]