RFA Arndale (A133) was a Dale-class fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, originally one of six ships ordered by the British Tanker Company which were purchased on the stocks by the Admiralty. She was decommissioned on 12 August 1959 and was laid up at Rosyth.
Career
Ordered by the British Tanker Company in 1936, Arndale was built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend and launched on 5 August 1937. She was taken over by the Admiralty on 28 September 1937 after completing her sea trials, and on 29 September 1937 sailed from the River Tyne bound for Trinidad on her maiden voyage. She went out to the Pacific in 1938, sailing to Auckland, New Zealand via Abadan on the Persian Gulf, before returning to the UK in early 1939. She returned to the Pacific in 1939, and on the outbreak of the Second World War, was travelling back to the UK via the Mediterranean. She arrived at Portsmouth on 31 October, but was involved in a collision with RFA Distol at Gosport Oil Fuel Jetty. In November she sailed to Trinidad, returning to the UK in December via Halifax, Nova Scotia.