AMC Aotearoa 1913-1917

The AMC Aotearoa was commissioned by the Union Steamship Company and construction started in 1913. However, it never operated as intended on the Trans-Pacific service in conjunction with the ship Niagara. 

In June 1915 it was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service and renamed HMS Avenger, functioning as an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) for the 10th Cruiser Squadron Northern Patrol in the Central Atlantic. For this purpose, it had a mercantile conversion and was launched in July 1915.

Of over 60 commissioned AMC's employed on-patrol and later convoy protection, 33 served with 10th Cruiser Squadron on Northern Patrol.  The HMS Avenger remained in service just over a year before being torpedoed and sunk by U-boat 69 in the North Sea on 14 July 1917.