Shortages of materials meant that she was wooden-hulled, with a steel keelson, stem and stern posts of oak, and timbers largely of yellow pine.

During the 1920s, the vessel was used by the British government as a military base and prison ship for holding Irish Republicans as part of Britain's internment strategy following the events of Bloody Sunday in 1920.

[4] This location was supplemented with internments at other land based sites, such as Larne workhouse, Belfast Prison and Derry Gaol.

Cloistered below decks in cages which each held 50 internees, the prisoners were forced to use broken toilets, which overflowed frequently into their communal area.

Deprived of tables, the already weakened men ate off the floor, frequently succumbing to disease and illness as a result.

Signatures include Mícheál mac Eochaidh, W. Quillan, Packie Murphy, J. P. Kearns, Michael Carraher, Charlie Magee, Peter Rafferty, Mick McIlhatton, Frankie Corr, Owen (Montague) Teague (Patrilineality; County Tyrone, Northern Ireland,) John Grimes, John Bell, Joseph McKenny, Michael O'Neill, Liam Ua Donngaile, Art Mac Partolon (quoting Shakespeare), F.G. Duffy, Jim Rooney, Seosamh O Cianain and Patrick Gormley.

An inscription from the book reads When you are on some lonely road, Waiting some friends to see, Let your thoughts turn towards the Argenta, And sometimes think of me .. Frankie Corr As a result of author Denise Kleinrichert's lobbying efforts, the files of all the internees — most of them named in an appendix to her book — are now available for viewing at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).