The Cephalonia was an ocean liner put into service in 1882 by the British shipping company Cunard Line , which was used in passenger traffic on the Liverpool - Queenstown - Boston route. The ship was sold to China in 1900.
history
The 5,517 GRT steamship Cephalonia was built at the Laird Brothers shipyard in Birkenhead and was launched on May 20, 1882. She was the sister ship of the Catalonia (built in 1881) and the Pavonia (built in 1882). The ship, 131.2 meters long and 14.2 meters wide, was made of iron and had a chimney, three masts and a single propeller. On board there was space for 200 first class and 1500 third class passengers. On August 23, 1882, the Cephalonia left Liverpool on her maiden voyage via Queenstown. Its final port was Boston, but the Cephalonia occasionally went to New York and Baltimore .
After being appointed Spanish ambassador to Washington, DC , Juan Valera arrived in the United States on January 18, 1884, on board the Cephalonia . On January 23, 1886, the ship lost its propeller about 650 nautical miles west of Fastnet Rock and had to be towed to reach Queenstown. Long-time captain of the Cephalonia was William Simpson Seccombe († 1910). His son Percy and daughter Elizabeth were first class passengers on the last voyage of the Lusitania in May 1915. Both were killed in the sinking.
The Cephalonia was in passenger traffic until it was used as a troop transport in the Boer War from September 12, 1899 . The following year it was sold to the Chinese Eastern Railway and renamed Hailor . In 1904 the ship was sunk as a block ship in Port Arthur .
