On 25 August 1939 the passenger ship Jervis Bay of the Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line Ltd, London was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. Conversion was completed on 15 October 1939.

Displacement: 14164 BRT
Armament: 8x 152mm, 2x 76mm
Speed: 15 knots

Career:
October 39 - April 40: South Atlantic Station
May 40: Bermuda Convoy Escort Force
June 40 - November 40: Bermuda and Halifax Escort Force

On 5 November 1940, HMS Jervis Bay (A/Capt. Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen, RN) was shelled and sunk in position 52º41'N, 32º17'W by the German pocket-battleship Admiral Scheer while engaging the superior enemy ship in a heroic, if hopeless, fight to give the 37 merchants in the convoy HX-84 a chance to escape, because the armed merchant cruiser was the sole escort. Her sacrifice allowed many ships of the convoy to scatter and escape in the night. Capt. E.S.F. Fegen (RN) was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Citation: "For valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect. On the 5th of November, 1940, in heavy seas, Captain Fegen, in His Majesty's Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay, was escorting thirty-eight Merchantmen. Sighting a powerful German warship he at once drew clear of the Convoy, made straight for the enemy and brought his ship between the raider and her prey, so that they might scatter and escape. Crippled, in flames, unable to reply, for nearly an hour the Jervis Bay held the German's fire. So she went down; but of the Merchantmen all but four or five were saved."

190 men were lost, while 65 survivors were picked up by the Swedish merchant Stureholm that had turned back during the night to search for survivors.