The steamship Athenia was built at the Vickers, Sons & Maxim shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, England, and was launched on October 20, 1903 with a volume of 7,835 GRT. The 145.7 meter long and 17.1 meter wide steamer had a chimney, four masts and two propellers and was powered by three six-cylinder triple expansion steam engines that developed 855 PSi and enabled a speed of 14 knots. The coal was burned in a total of six single-end steam boilers with a total of 18 furnaces. The hull had eight watertight bulkheads and a continuous double floor .
The Athenia was primarily designed as a cargo ship , as the Donaldson Line was not yet active in passenger traffic at that time. Nevertheless, there was accommodation for twelve first-class passengers on board. On May 21, 1904, the Athenia ran in Glasgow on her maiden voyage to Montreal . In the following year, the shipping company finally got into passenger traffic and had additional cabins set up on board for 50 second-class passengers and 450 third-class passengers. As a result of these modifications, the ship tonnage increased to 8,668 GRT. The Athenia was the first passenger ship on the Donaldson Line.
On March 25, 1905, the Athenia left Glasgow for its first voyage in the regular transatlantic passenger service to Saint John . In the years that followed, she stayed on the route to Saint John, Quebec, and Montreal. In 1916, the Athenia, along with the other ships of the Donaldson Line, became the property of the newly formed corporation Anchor-Donaldson Line.
Sinking
On August 16, 1917, the Athenia was torpedoed and sunk seven nautical miles north of Inishtrahull Island on the Northern Irish coast by the German submarine U 53 (Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose ) without warning (position 55 ° 33 ′ N , 7 ° 23 ′ W ) . The ship was with passengers and ordinary cargo on a crossing from Montreal to Glasgow. 15 people were killed by the sinking.
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