SS St Petersburg was a North Sea passenger ferry that was built in Scotland in 1908 for the Great Eastern Railway (GER).

St Petersburg was the third of three sister ships that John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Dumbartonshire built for the GER.

[9] In 1915 the Admiralty requisitioned St Petersburg as a cross-Channel troop ship, and renamed her Archangel.

On 16 May 1941 she embarked 182 and 196 batteries of 65th (The Manchester Regiment) Anti-Aircraft Brigade at Kirkwall to take them to Aberdeen.

[13] Just before midnight that night, three German Heinkel He 111 bomber aircraft attacked the two ships in the North Sea at position 57°55′N 2°03′W / 57.917°N 2.050°W / 57.917; -2.050.

One aircraft, flying at an altitude of 50 feet (15 m), dropped two bombs, one of which hit Archangel in her engine room and boiler room, caused a boiler explosion, and severed communication between the fore and aft of the ship.

The same aircraft returned at an altitude of 500 feet (150 m) to strafe Archangel, as the other two He 111s engaged Blankney.

[13] Blankney launched her boats to rescue survivors, and went alongside Archangel to complete the evacuation.