India (ship)
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The India (II) was a passenger ship for the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which entered service in 1896 and was built to carry passengers, mail and cargo on a regular route from Great Britain to India and the Far East . Together with her sister ships , she was one of the most modern and luxurious ships of the shipping company. During the First World War she served as an armed auxiliary cruiser until she was sunk by a German submarine on August 8, 1915 off the Norwegian coast .
The ship
The 7,911 GRT steamship India was built at the Caird & Company shipyard in the Scottish port city of Greenock . She was the first of five sister ships that entered service between 1896 and 1900. The others were China (1896), Egypt (1897), Arabia (1898) and Persia (1900). These steamers were among the most modern of their time and set new standards.
At the time of her commissioning, the India was the largest ship of her shipping company. It was launched on April 15, 1896 and was completed on September 3, 1896. The godmother for the launch was Mary Anne Kendall, the daughter of a director of the shipping company. The passenger and cargo steamer was 152.37 meters long, 16.55 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 8.15 meters. The India was powered by a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that ran on a propeller and could produce 11,000 PSi . The ship could reach a top speed of 18 knots (33.3 km / h), which was a very high speed in its day. It had two masts and two chimneys. On board there was space for 317 passengers in the first class and 152 passengers in the second class.
On August 20, 1900, the India was the first P&O ship to enter the new port of Fremantle, Australia. In 1903 she beat the passenger steamer Friedrich der Große from Norddeutscher Lloyd by 24 hours on its voyage from the Red Sea to Australia. After the outbreak of war in 1914, the India left P & O's commercial passenger traffic. She brought, among others, Admiral Frederick Doveton Sturdee home from Gibraltar after the sea battle in the Falkland Islands .
Auxiliary cruiser in the First World War
On March 13, 1915, the steamer was requisitioned as an auxiliary cruiser by the British Admiralty . She was assigned to the 10th Cruiser Squadron (10th Cruiser Squadron) of the Royal Navy , whose job it was to form a blockade in the waters between Iceland and the north of Scotland . The P&O steamer Moldavia was also integrated into the 10th Cruiser Squadron. The India was provided with a capacity for 2,500 troops.
Sinking
On Sunday, August 8, 1915, the India was torpedoed by the German submarine U 22 (Kapitänleutnant Bruno Hoppe ) off the island of Helligvær off the port of Bodø on the north coast of Norway . The commandant of India at the time was William GA Kennedy. She had stopped to inspect a possible blockade breaker . The ship sank at the position 67 ° 30 ' N , 13 ° 20' E with the loss of ten officers and 160 soldiers. The surviving 22 officers and 119 soldiers were brought to Narvik by the steamer Gotland and the Saxon .