She served in this capacity for the next four and a half years. In 1940 the Cilicia was in collision with the Cunard liner Carinthia , also serving as an armed merchant cruiser. Both vessels were travelling at speed and were blacked out. There was no radar fitted at the time.  The Carinthia cut into the Cilicia almost to her centreline in way of No.2 hold, and left her jackstaff on board. But for the fact that the Cilicia, like all armed merchant cruisers, carried a large number of empty drums in her hold for buoyancy purposes, she would probably not have been able to make her way back to Belfast . From the position of the collision, she left behind a continuous trail of empty drums! The Carinthia’s jackstaff was retained on board the Cilicia and in fact ‘decorated’ the ante-room of the wardroom throughout her service as an AMC.

            On 25^th March 1941, whilst on patrol in the Atlantic, the Cilicia received a radio message from another Anchor Line ship, the Britannia [b.1926, 8,799 tons], reporting that she was being attacked by a surface raider some 750 miles west of Freetown. The surgeon of the Cilicia was Dr Thomas Miller, whose daughter Nancy was surgeon of the Britannia. As no further signal was received, it was clear that the raider’s attack had been successful.

            Three days later the Cilicia sighted a small steamer at 6.25am, and at 7.15am she sent away a boarding party to investigate her. She proved to be the Spanish steamer Bachi, and a signal came from the boarding party that she had picked up 63 of the Britannia’s survivors. By 9.30am they were alongside the Cilicia , and the first to reach the deck was Dr Nancy Miller, to be greeted by an overjoyed father. The Cilicia landed the survivors at Freetown and in 1942 Dr Nancy Miller was awarded the MBE, and in 1943 Lloyd’s Medal for her services in attending the passengers and crew of the Britannia during the shelling and sinking of the vessel by the German raider Thor. In the encounter 127 passengers and 122 crew from the Britannia lost their lives.

            In 1942 HMS Cilicia was instrumental in establishing a meteorological station on the island of Tristan da Cunha , which became known as HMS Atlantic Isle. Tristan da Cunha [37°10´S, 12°20´W] is in fact the top of a symmetrical volcanic cone rising to 6,760ft. above sea level. The meteorological station was established at Edinburgh Settlement, on a small ledge 4½ miles long and half a mile wide.

            After the plans for the station, known as ‘Job 9’, had been formulated, matters were complicated by the Admiralty instruction that wives and families of naval personnel should accompany their husbands, and that all members of the party should be most carefully selected. ‘Job 9’ involved the transportation and erection of a township, the weather station itself being only part of the huge task. In all over 2,000 tons of cargo was transported from Cape Town to Tristan. As ships could not approach the shore closer than half a mile, everything had to be landed in ships’ boats on to an open beach and in heavy surf. With the possibility of enemy interference an ever present threat, the work of discharging cargo was a long and hazardous undertaking for the AMCs allocated to the task. An idea of the weather conditions prevailing can be gleaned from the fact that when HMS Cilicia arrived off Tristan on 9^th May 1942 to land 1,426 tons of cargo using her own boats, she remained there until 9^th June, as only 7½ days produced favourable conditions for working cargo. The meteorological station HMS Atlantic Isle was eventually commissioned in 1943.

            In 1969, the Cilicia was depicted on a 6d. stamp issued by Tristan da Cunha . The stamp was significant in that it was the only occasion on which a British merchant ship was featured on a stamp in wartime guise – in the Cilicia ’s case as an armed merchant cruiser. The stamp serves as a tribute to all armed merchant cruisers and the men who served in them.

            In March 1944 the Cilicia was sent to Mobile , USA , for overhaul and conversion into a troopship. She left Liverpool on 16^th December 1944 with 2,400 troops for Port Said . By the end of hostilities she had made four trooping voyages, carrying a total of 16,035 troops and prisoners-of-war.

            The Cilicia was returned to the Anchor Line in 1946 and was given a complete refit by her builders. She re-opened the Indian passenger service from Liverpool on 31^st May 1947.

            In November 1965 the Cilicia was sold for £170,000 for use as a floating hostel for training stevedores at Parkhaven, Holland . She was renamed Jan Backx in this capacity. She remained in use until August 1980 when she was towed by the tug Zwarte Zee to Bilbao for breaking up. For this final voyage she reverted to her original name of Cilicia , and except for a broad orange band round her hull, she was still in Anchor Line colours.