At the end of June 1940 she was assigned the task of deporting interned Anglo-Italian and Anglo-German civilians as well as a small number of legitimate prisoners of war to Canada.

In 1925 Blue Star ordered a set of new liners for its new London – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires route.

As a cruise ship Arandora Star was based mainly in Southampton, and voyaged to many different destinations, calling in some instances at home ports such as Immingham.

The ship's colour scheme of a white hull with scarlet ribbon gave rise to her nicknames of "The Wedding Cake" or "The Chocolate Box".

[6] At the end of September, the Admiralty assessed the ship at Dartmouth, Devon and decided she was unsuitable for conversion to an armed merchant cruiser.

[5] In December, she was ordered to Avonmouth where she was fitted with the Admiralty Net Defence anti-torpedo system, consisting of underwater wire mesh suspended from booms either side of the ship.

She sailed unescorted to Harstad, where she embarked 1,600 personnel; most of them members of the Royal Air Force in addition to some French and Polish troops.

On 14 June, the ship left Glasgow en route for Brest, in Brittany, to rescue troops and refugees, a part of Operation Aerial.

Arandora Star escaped with the aid of a destroyer, which provided anti-aircraft cover and came under heavy air attack.

[6] Arandora Star's trip to Saint-Nazaire was fairly uneventful; on the same day, Luftwaffe aircraft sank RMS Lancastria at the port killing several thousand people.

There she found Bayonne under Luftwaffe attack, but assisted by a destroyer, she picked up about 500 people who were in an overloaded small craft adrift off the beach.

She embarked roughly 1,700 troops and refugees, including the Polish staff, and left just in time as Luftwaffe aircraft approached to bomb the town.

Prien believed the torpedo to be faulty,[13] but it detonated against Arandora Star's starboard side, flooding her aft engine room.

At 9:30, an RAF Coastal Command Short Sunderland flying boat flew over and dropped watertight bags containing first aid kits, food, cigarettes, and a message that help was coming.

[citation needed] In the weeks following the Arandora Star's sinking many bodies of those who died were carried by the sea to various points in Ireland and the Hebrides.

From a service book on the body, Garda Sergeant Burns identified 27-year-old Frank Carter from Kilburn, London, a trooper in the Royal Dragoons.

The body of Cesare Camozzi (1891–1940) from Iseo, Italy was washed ashore on the Inishowen peninsula, County Donegal and is buried at Sacred Heart graveyard, Carndonagh.

The body of EG Lane from Kingsteignton, Newton Abbot, Devon, England, a private in the Devonshire Regiment, was washed onto the beach near Ballycastle, County Mayo and is buried in the local cemetery.

[19] The wreck of one of the lifeboats remains visible at Knockvologan beach on the Ross of Mull, largely buried but with its iron suspension hooks still above the sand.

A memorial was unveiled on Colonsay on 2 July 2005, the 65th anniversary of the tragedy, at the cliff where the body of Giuseppe Delgrosso was found.

[28] On the same day, 2 July 2010, a memorial cloister garden was opened next to St Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Glasgow.

[29] In 2019, a 3.5 metres (11 ft) ship model of the Arandora Star went on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum after 400 hours of restoration work.

[30] On 2 July 2021, the president of the National Association Carabinieri of Dublin, Ireland Francesco Morelli concurrently with the 80th anniversary of the Arandora Star, deposited and launched the memorial of the 446 Italian victims that were lost in the tragedy.

After having conducted various researches on the Arandorra Star and the Irish territory, the president Francesco Morelli chose this cemetery.

[citation needed] On 2 July 2022, the president of the national association Carabinieri of Dublin, Ireland Francesco Morelli concurrently with the Arandora Star's 82nd anniversary, has launched a memorial in Termoncarragh's cemetery (Bellmullet, Co. Mayo) for the five victims from Casalattico which have been lost in the tragedy.