SS Ceramic was an ocean liner built in Belfast for White Star Line in 1912–13 and operated on the Liverpool – Australia route.

In 1934 Shaw, Savill & Albion Line absorbed White Star's Australia service and acquired Ceramic.

[2] Harland and Wolff built Ceramic as hull 432 on the Number One slipway of its Belfast yard,[3] launching her on 11 December 1912 and completing her on 5 July 1913.

Harland and Wolff and White Star Line had successfully tested this arrangement in 1908 on Laurentic and had since applied it to the three giant Olympic-class ocean liners.

[6] She carried wireless telegraphy equipment, operated by the Marconi Company on the standard 300 and 600 metre wavelengths.

[17] On 18 December 1930, Ceramic collided with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's 6,469 GRT cargo motor ship Laguna in the River Thames near Gravesend.

[1] In June 1936 Harland and Wolff's yard in Govan, Glasgow began a refit to modernise Ceramic.

[15] When the Second World War broke out on 1 September 1939 Ceramic was at Tenerife on her regular route to South Africa and Australia.

She left Sydney for home on 20 April, and after her regular calls in Australia and South Africa she put into Freetown on 2 June.

If she was seeking a home-bound convoy she found none, for she sailed the next day unescorted and reached Liverpool on 13 June.

[21] In the South Atlantic in the small hours of 11 August 1940 the Bank Line cargo ship Testbank sighted Ceramic about a mile and a half ahead.

[23] Ceramic reached Walvis Bay in South West Africa with the aid of a tug and escorted by a Royal Navy warship.

Apart from a visit to Newcastle, New South Wales Ceramic stayed in Sydney until 21 March, when she left for home.

[24] She continued unescorted via South Africa as usual, reaching Sydney on 4 September, where she stayed until 1 October.

Instead of returning by her usual route Ceramic turned east across the Tasman Sea, called at Wellington, New Zealand 19–27 October and then crossed the Pacific.

Because of the threat of enemy attack her Atlantic route from Liverpool to Cape Town was extended westwards.

On 15 February she left Halifax and under naval escort to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, arriving on 5 March.

[19] Again she continued east to return home, this time calling at Lyttelton, New Zealand on 2 June before crossing the Pacific and the passing through Panama Canal.

[29] One passenger was Rudolph Dolmetsch (1906–42), classical musician and composer, then serving as Regimental Bandmaster with the Royal Artillery.

At midnight on 6–7 December, in cold weather and rough seas in the mid-Atlantic, U-515 hit Ceramic with a single torpedo.

The crippled liner stayed afloat and her complement abandoned ship in good order, launching about eight lifeboats all full of survivors.

About noon the U-boat commander, Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke, decided to rescue the Ceramic's skipper.

The storm was now almost Force 10 and almost swamping U-515's conning tower, so Henke ordered his crew to make do with the first survivor they could find.

This turned out to be Sapper Eric Munday of the Royal Engineers, whom they rescued from the water and took prisoner aboard the submarine.

The storm was too severe for neutral rescue ships from São Miguel Island in the Azores to put to sea.