RMS Asturias was a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ocean liner that was built in Ireland in 1908 and scrapped in Japan in 1933.

Asturias was a member of RMSP's "A" series of passenger liners on the Southampton – Buenos Aires route.

[citation needed] Asturias was painted in the hospital ship livery of a white hull with a broad green band punctuated by large red crosses.

[6] On 5 August 1914, one day after the UK entered the war, Asturias left Southampton for the Royal Navy anchorage at Scapa Flow.

[5] She was soon sent to Le Havre in northern France, where she embarked wounded troops from the British Expeditionary Force.

[6] Asturias' duties took her mostly to French and Mediterranean ports, from Saint-Nazaire on the Bay of Biscay to the Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey.

[7] At 5:05[clarification needed] on 1 February 1915 a German U-boat fired a torpedo that struck Asturias but failed to detonate.

[10] Her machine spaces quickly flooded and her Master ordered her crew and medical staff of 50 nurses to abandon ship.

[14] She was declared a total loss,[15] the Admiralty bought her and used her as an ammunition hulk at Plymouth for the remainder of the war.

Shipyards were busy building new tonnage to replace vessels lost in the war, so Asturias' repairs and refit did not begin until 1922.

RMSP had her converted into a cruise ship, which included turning some of her cargo holds into passenger accommodation, making her cabins more spacious and adding more public rooms.