Afric
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Afric was a 1899 posed in service passenger ship of the British shipping company White Star Line , the passenger and freight transport of the UK via Cape Town to Australia was used. She was the first steamer in the White Star fleet on this route. In 1917 the Afric was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Cornwall .
The ship
The steamship Afric was built in 1898 at the Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff and was launched there on November 16, 1898. She was the first of three new sister ships , unofficially called The Jubilee Class, which was considered a sign of anticipation for the approaching turn of the century . The other two ships were the Medic and the Persic . With these three ships, the White Star Line entered the passenger and freight traffic to Australia. This step proved so successful that the shipping company completed the Jubilee Class with the Runic and the Suevic in 1900 .
The Afric had all the features that were typical of the Jubilee Class. The 173.7 meter long and 19.3 meter wide ship had three decks , a chimney and four masts . The Afric was powered by an eight-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine from the shipyard, which acted on two propellers and made 5000 PSi . The top speed was 14 knots. 350 passengers could be transported in the cabin class. The ship also had seven holds. Freight and luggage could be loaded with a total of 21 derrick cranes . The daily coal consumption was 80 tons.
history
On February 2, 1899, the completed Afric was handed over to its owners, and on February 8, 1899, she left Liverpool for her first voyage to New York . This trip was intended as a test drive. After returning from New York, it was slightly rebuilt at Harland & Wolff. This increased the volume from the original 11,816 GRT to 11,948 GRT.
On September 9, 1899, she finally left for her first crossing to Sydney via Cape Town , Albany , Adelaide and Melbourne . During the Second Boer War it was also used as a troop transport .
On February 12, 1917, the Afric was sunk by the German submarine UC 66 (Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Pustkuchen) on another voyage from Liverpool via Devonport to Sydney twelve nautical miles south-southwest of the Eddystone lighthouse on the coast of Cornwall . 22 people were killed. The Afric was the largest of the 33 ships sunk by UC 66 and the largest ship sunk since Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare for the second time on February 1, 1917 during World War I.
The wreck of the Afric lies upright at a depth of 80 meters and is partially covered with fishing nets (position 49 ° 59 ′ 0 ″ N , 4 ° 18 ′ 0 ″ W ). The ship's bell has been removed. Several divers have died exploring the wreck in the past.