Aotearoa AMC 1913-1917

This ship was never operated by Union Steamship Company but was initially commissioned by the Company as Aotearoa and building had started in 1913. It was intended to run on the Trans-Pacific service in conjunction with Niagara. 

In June 1915 she 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 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-69 in the North Sea on 14 of July 1917.