Scale: not calculated. Originally named 'Arandora' (1927) the liner was built by Cammell Laird & Co Ltd for the Blue Star Line. Together with her two sister ships, ‘Almeda Star’ and ‘Andalucia Star’, built by the same company, she was intended for the company’s London – South America service. However the ‘Arandora’ was refitted as a cruise liner by Fairfield, renamed ‘Arandora Star’ and was used solely for pleasure cruises. Her exclusively first-class accommodation for 180 passengers extended over the four upper decks and her cabins and public rooms were luxuriously appointed. The holds were insulated for the transport of chilled meat.

The model shows her at anchor in, or shortly after, 1936 when her mainmast was removed and her superstructure and main deck was extended aft. She was requisitioned in 1939 as an experimental ship for anti-torpedo nets; the following year she became a troop transport. On the morning of 2 July, the unescorted ‘Arandora Star’ was 75 nautical miles off Ireland, bound for Canada with 1178 German and Italian internees and prisoners-of-war, when she was struck in the engine room by a torpedo from the German submarine ‘U-47’. Panic broke out among the prisoners of the sinking ship, which delayed the launching of the lifeboats and rafts. She sank in just an hour with the loss of over 800 761 lives. The survivors were sighted later that morning by a Sunderland flying boat and were later picked up by the Canadian destroyer ‘St Laurent’.