Aotearoa 1913-1917

The Aotearoa was commissioned by the Union Steamship Company and construction started in 1913. The Company intended it to operate on the trans-Pacific service in conjunction with the ship Niagara. However, before construction was completed, the ship was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service. When it launched in 1915 it was renamed HMS Avenger.

The Avenger was used as an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC), part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron Northern Patrol in the Central Atlantic. Of over 60 commissioned AMC's employed on patrol and later convoy protection, 33 served with 10th Cruiser Squadron on Northern Patrol, which aimed to prevent trade to and from Germany by checking merchant ships and their cargo, and stopping German naval ships from leaving the North Sea for the Atlantic Ocean and vice versa.  

The Avenger was only in service for just over a year before being torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine (U-boat 69) in the North Sea in July 1917.