Maloja (ship, 1912)
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The RMS Maloja (I) was a 1912 passenger ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which was built for passenger and freight traffic from London to Australia . On February 27, 1916, the Maloja was sunk in the Strait of Dover by a mine hit , killing 155 passengers and crew. She was the largest ship P & O in the First World War lost. Her sister ship also fell victim to the submarine war .
The ship
The Maloja and her sister ship , the Medina (12,358 GRT), also commissioned in 1912 , were commissioned by P&O for the regular transatlantic service to Australia. In contrast to most of P & O's other ships, the Maloja was not built by the Scottish shipyard Caird & Company , but by the Northern Irish shipyard Harland & Wolff in Belfast . The 173.4 meter long and 18.9 meter wide, steel- built steamer was the largest ship in the P&O fleet at the time. It had two chimneys, two masts and a double screw and could carry 450 travelers in first and 220 in second class.
The steamer had a luxurious equipment. A gallery stretched over the first-class dining room and was joined by the music room, which was equipped with a concert grand piano. The ship was named after the place of the same name in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . The Maloja was the largest ship in the P&O fleet when it was commissioned (she was 73 GRT larger than her sister ship). The Maloja was launched on December 17, 1910, was completed on September 7, 1911, and set off on her maiden voyage on February 9, 1912 . From then on, she transported passengers, freight and mail on the London - Colombo - Melbourne - Sydney route .
Downfall
On Saturday, February 26, 1916 at 15.00 which ran Maloja in Tilbury under the command of Captain Charles Edward Irving to a passage to Bombay via Dover and Port Said from. In addition to 335 crew members, it had 121 passengers on board, including a large number of women and children. Among the travelers were many British who were serving in British India in the military, colonial or administrative service.
On Sunday morning, February 27th, the Maloja reached the port of Dover. While the ship was anchored there, Captain Irving had a rescue exercise conducted at the boat and fire stations and instructed passengers on where to go in an emergency. At 10.15 a.m. the steamer cast off from Dover and steamed into the English Channel at full speed . The Maloja didn't get far. At 10.30 a.m., the ship ran into a mine two miles from Dover , which the German submarine UC 6 had laid a few days earlier under the command of Lieutenant Matthias Graf von Schmettow . The mine hit the ship in the stern , a column of water and debris was thrown into the air and hit the deck.
Captain Irving ordered the engine room to “stop” and then “full power back” so the ship could stop and the lifeboats could be launched. Since the engine room was flooded, the engines could not be stopped, so the ship continued to make about eight knots. In addition, a heavy-developed list to starboard what the easing of the boats more difficult (only three or four were successfully eased). Many passengers jumped overboard.
As a result of the explosion, some of the watertight bulkheads were dented in the ship's hull , which gradually allowed water to run into the adjacent compartments. The damage done was too great and the ship sank too quickly for everyone on board to be rescued in time. The ocean liner that was struck lay on its side and sank 24 minutes after it hit the mine. Because of the proximity to the land, fishing cutters, coastal boats and other ships quickly reached the scene of the accident to rescue the survivors. Most were picked up by the Dieppe and St. David hospital ships and taken to the Lord Warden Hotel in Dover. Many eyewitnesses observed the sinking of the Maloja from the land .
155 of the 456 people on board were killed by the accident (106 crew members and 49 passengers, including many women and children). The bodies were laid out in Dover's Market Hall for identification. Many of the dead were buried in the municipal St. Mary's Cemetery, where several tombstones and monuments still commemorate them today. The submarine UC 6 , which sank a total of 61 ships, suffered the same fate as the Maloja later in the war when it ran into a mine on September 27, 1917 in front of the chalk cliffs of North Foreland on the coast of Kent County and sank. All 16 crew members were killed. The wreck of Maloja is 21 meters deep at position 51 ° 0 ' N , 1 ° 19' O . Because of its proximity to land and its shallow depth, it is a popular destination for divers. As part of a maneuver in 1964, the wreck was partially blown up, which is why it is in very poor condition today. The British salvage company Risdon Beazley Marine Trading Company carried out several salvage operations.
In 1923 P&O put the second ship of the same name into service, the 20,837 GRT Maloja (II), which was in service until 1954.