Athenia was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering, Glasgow,
and was launched in January 1922. She made her maiden voyage for an
Anchor-Donaldson/Cunard joint service on 21 April 1923, from Glasgow and
Liverpool to Montréal. (Cunard owned Anchor, which in turn partially
owned Anchor-Donaldson, and at times Cunard's Liverpool-Canada service
was maintained by Athenia and her fleetmates.)
In May 1935, the Anchor Line went into liquidation, Anchor-Donaldson
ceased to exist and the Cunard relationship ended. The Donaldson Line
acquired Anchor's interest in Anchor-Donaldson, including Athenia, and
changed its name to Donaldson Atlantic Line. The change in ownership
had no effect on Athenia; she remained on the same
Glasgow-Liverpool-Canada service as she had maintained for
Anchor-Donaldson.
On 3 September 1939, while en route to Montréal, Athenic became the
first merchant marine casualty of World War II, when she was torpedoed
and sunk by U30, some 200 miles west of the Hebrides. Unable to summon
assistance when her radio room was damaged by shelling from the U-boat
after it surfaced, Athenic developed a severe list which impeded the
launching of all of her lifeboats. There were 112 fatalities out of the
1,418 on board, most occurring when three lifeboats were lost.
