HMAT Ascanius

Ascanius in 1936
History
Name	Ascanius (1910–1949) San Giovannino (1949–1952)
Owner	Ocean Steamship Company (1912–1921) Cia de Nav. Florencia (1949–1952)
Builder	Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast
Yard number	295
Launched	29 October 1910
In service	30 December 1910
Out of service	1952
Australia
Name	Ascanius
Operator	Australian Army
In service	1914
Out of service	1920
Fate	Returned to owners in 1920
General characteristics
Tonnage	10,048 gross register tons
Length	150.3 m (493 ft)
Beam	18.4 m (60 ft)
Draught	11.3 m (37 ft)
Installed power	641 hp
Propulsion	Triple expansion steam engine
Speed	26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph) maximum

SS Ascanius was a steamship built in 1910 for the Ocean Steamship Company to be operated in the Blue Funnel Line. The ship operated from Britain to Australia until 1914 when she was converted into the troop transporter HMAT Ascanius for the Australian Expeditionary Force with the tactical identifier A11. Ascanius was returned to her owners after the war and resumed her regular passenger service from Glasgow via Liverpool to Brisbane.

In 1940 Ascanius was again requisitioned as a troop transporter. On 30 July 1944 she was torpedoed in the English Channel by German submarine U-621, but was able to reach Liverpool on her own and was repaired. In 1945, the ship was used to transport displaced persons from Marseille to Haifa. In 1949 Ascanius was sold to Cia. de Nav. 'Florencia' of Genoa and renamed San Giovannino. She was to be used for emigrant traffic from Italy to Australia, but this did not happen and she was scrapped in 1952.