SS Savoie (1906)

RMS Araguaya was in service with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, sailing the Southampton to Buenos Aires route via Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo from 1906 to 1917 with some transatlantic voyages being undertaken between Hamburg and New York via Southampton. In 1917, the ship was acquired by the Canadian government and converted into a hospital ship for service in the First World War. Araguaya was returned to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1920, having transported over 15,000 patients during her career as a hospital ship, and mainly used for cruises to the Norwegian fjords departing from Kiel. Araguaya was subsequentely sold to Yugoslav LLoyd in 1926 and renamed SS Kraljica Marija, sailing mostly on routes in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The ship remained in Yugoslav service until she was sold to the French Navy in 1940 and renamed SS Savoie. Following the fall of France in World War II, Savoie became part of the Vichy France Navy and was layed up with the rest of the French fleet in Casablanca, French Morocco. On 8 November 1942, Operation Torch commenced resulting in the Naval Battle of Casablanca, which saw Allied warships and aircraft sink much of the Vichy French fleet. Bombs started falling on Casablanca Harbour at 8.04 am, resulting in ten civilian freighters and liners being sunk, including Savoie which was shelled by USS Massachusetts at the cost of three lives. At a later point Savoie's wreck was raised and scrapped in situ.^[3]

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  First class music salon in 1910.
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  Interior of Araguaya in 1911.