The second
RMS Laconia was a
Cunard ocean liner, built by
Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911-1917
Laconia. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from
Southampton to
New York. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this
Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,649 people were killed when the
Laconia sank. The U-boat commander
Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of
Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the
Laconia incident.