Builder: Barclay Curle and Co, Whiteinch, Glasgow.            

Yard No: 422

Launched: 31st March 1900

Tonnage: 7,392 grt

Length: 446 feet

Beam: 52 feet

Machinery: Triple expansion engines, 2 shafts.

Speed: 13 knots

Builder: Barclay Curle and Co, Whiteinch, Glasgow.             Yard No: 422

Launched: 31st March 1900

Tonnage: 7,392 grt

Length: 446 feet

Beam: 52 feet

Machinery: Triple expansion engines, 2 shafts.

Speed: 13 knots

Launched as ‘Lake Champlain’ for the British and African Steam Navigation Co Limited (Elder Dempster) as a Passenger Cargo ship, she was transferred to Canadian Pacific in 1903, and modified in 1906 when she was renamed ‘Ruthenia’.

The ship was requisitioned as a Dummy Battleship by the Admiralty in 1914 and converted as ‘HMS King George V’ by Harland & Wolff at Belfast. The conversion was completed by 17 December 1914 and she sailed for Scapa Flow..

RFA Ruthenia became a Store ship in 1915 and then an Oiler in 1916, she was reduced to an Oil Hulk at Singapore in 1929.  On the 16th February 1942 the ship was scuttled at Singapore to prevent her falling into the hands of the advancing Japanese Forces, she was subsequently salvaged by the Japanese and renamed ‘Choran Maru’, recovered by the Allies in 1945 and eventually returned to the UK after stranding in the Moesi River, the ship was broken up at Dalmuir on the Clyde in June 1949.