RMS Arlanza was a 14,622 GRT ocean liner of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She was built in Belfast in 1912 for RMSP's scheduled route between England and South America. She was a Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser from 1915 until 1920. She returned to civilian liner service in 1920 and was scrapped in 1938.
RMS Arlanza (1911)
The former Pacific Steam Navigation Co liner Orotava, which as an armed merchant cruiser came to Arlanza's aid in the White Sea in November 1915
HMS Exeter, whose Royal Marines Band played for Arlanza's final sailing from Montevideo in August 1938
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by a Scot, James MacQueen. The line's motto was Per Mare Ubique. After a troubled start, it became the largest shipping group in the world in 1927 when it took over the White Star Line.
The company was liquidated and its assets taken over by the newly formed Royal Mail Lines in 1932 after financial trouble and scandal; over the years RML declined to no more than the name of a service run by former rival Hamburg Süd.
RMS Asturias in a 1930 poster by Kenneth Shoesmith, who created a number of images advertising Royal Mail Lines ships
