SS Reina Victoria-Eugenia was a steam ocean liner and mail ship launched in 1912 in England and operated by the Compañía Transatlántica Española (CTE). She and her sister ship represented a significant modernisation of CTE's fleet of ageing and obsolescent ships.
After the Second Spanish Republic was declared in 1931 Reina Victoria-Eugenia was renamed Argentina. She was laid up in 1932.
In 1939 a Nationalist air attack on the Port of Barcelona sank Argentina at her moorings. Her wreck had been raised by 1940 and was scrapped in 1945.
Building
Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson built Reina Victoria-Eugenia at its Neptune Yard in Low Walker, England, launching her on 26 September 1912 and completing her in February 1913. At the same time William Denny and Brothers built her sister ship Infanta Isabel de Borbon, and there were significant technical differences between the two.
Denny's had built the refrigerated cargo liner which they had launched in 1908. Otaki was the first ship in the World to be propelled by a combination of reciprocating steam engines and steam turbines. Otaki had three screws. Her port and starboard screws were each powered by a triple-expansion engine. Exhaust steam from their low-pressure cylinders fed a single low-pressure turbine amidships that drove her middle screw.
Harland and Wolff had adopted the same engine combination for White Star Line's , launched in 1908, and for the s, the first two of which were launched in 1910 and 1911. CTE ordered a similar combination of triple-expansion engines and low-pressure turbine for Infanta Isabel de Borbon and Reina Victoria-Eugenia. Denny's gave Infanta Isabel de Borbon the same three-screw combination as Otaki.
However, Swan, Hunter, experimenting with "a self-propelled model", had developed a preference for a four-screw arrangement, with the piston engines driving the two middle screws and turbines driving the two outer screws. In 1910–11 Chantiers de l'Atlantique had put this idea into practice when it built the liner for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. CGT reported favourable results to Swan, Hunter. CTE accepted this arrangement for Reina Victoria-Eugenia.
The two sister ships for CTE differed slightly in appearance. Reina Victoria-Eugenia had a taller funnel, whereas Infanta Isabel de Borbon had cowl tops on her king-posts.
Reina Victoria-Eugenia was equipped for wireless telegraphy and submarine signalling. Her wireless operated on the standard 300 and 600 metre wavelengths. By 1914 her call sign was EDU.
Swan, Hunter built Reina Victoria-Eugenia with berths for 2,066 passengers: 200 first-class, 46 "interchangeable" class, 100 second class, 80 third class and 1,640 third and emigrant classes. Her public saloons were decorated in various historicist styles including Louis XVI, Neo-Georgian and Jacobean Revival.
Swan, Hunter made passive provision for Reina Victoria-Eugenia to be armed with four naval guns to enable her to be converted into an armed merchant cruiser.
CTE registered Reina Victoria-Eugenia at Barcelona. Her code letters were JFGW.
Performance
Reina Victoria-Eugenias sea trials were in February 1913, in the North Sea near the mouth of the River Tyne. Her contract required her to maintain for eight hours when half-laden, and for 24 hours when fully laden. On 7 February, half-laden and displacing 10,181 tons, she averaged despite bad weather. On 15 and 16 February, fully laden and displacing 13,229 tons, she averaged on her fuel consumption trials.
Her speed trials used the measured mile off St Mary's Island. Fog reduced visibility, so the trials had to be held relatively close to the shore to be able to see the mile posts. This meant that the ship was steaming in waters only about deep. Nevertheless, on her best run she achieved . It was reported that once the ship reached Spain, she achieved higher speeds in deeper water and better weather off Cádiz.
Service
CTE's liner services linked Italy and Spain with Latin America. On 12 March 1913 Reina Victoria-Eugenia started her maiden voyage from Barcelona via Malaga, Cádiz, Tenerife and Montevideo to Buenos Aires. Infanta Isabel de Borbon followed on 4 April.
In the First World War both Infanta Isabel de Borbon and Reina Victoria-Eugenia seem to have made some trips to New York. However, their scheduled service remained between Spain and the Río de la Plata.