Medjerda (ship)
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The Medjerda was a passenger ship put into service in 1898 by the French shipping company Compagnie de Navigation Mixte. In the First World War it served as a troop transport until it was sunk on the Spanish Mediterranean coast on May 11, 1917 by a German submarine off the Ebro Delta near Cape Tortosa. Of the 575 people on board, 344 were killed.
The ship
The 1918 GRT steamship Medjerda was built by the British shipyard Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Wallsend near Newcastle and was launched on September 1, 1898. The completion took place in November 1898. The 87.6 meter long and 11.1 meter wide ship had two funnels, two masts and a single propeller . The Medjerda , named after Tunisia's longest river , was powered by a triple expansion steam engine that developed 3,490 hp and allowed a speed of 15 knots.
It belonged to the French shipping company Compagnie de Navigation Mixte, founded in 1850 and based in Marseille , which was also its home port . The shipping company operated a passenger and freight service from Marseille to various ports in the Mediterranean and North Africa . After the outbreak of the First World War, the steamer was used for military service and was henceforth used as a troop transport, but still carried civilian passengers, as was customary with French troop transports in the First World War.
On November 3, 1916, the Medjerda was attacked six miles from Oropesa del Mar by the German submarine U 34 (Kapitänleutnant Claus Rücker). The submarine fired 45 volleys at the steamer, which escaped into Spanish territorial waters .
Sinking
On Thursday, May 10, 1917 at 6 p.m., the Medjerda set off under the command of Captain Joseph Got with 59 crew members and 516 passengers as well as ordinary cargo on board for a crossing from Oran (Algeria) to Port-Vendres on the southern French coast. Most of the passengers were French soldiers on their way to the front, but there were also 48 civilians among the travelers, including women and children. She was accompanied by the cargo ship La Nièvre of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique . The two steamships were initially accompanied by two destroyers on their departure , but they returned to their base after only an hour.
The slower La Nièvre fell back quickly, so that the Medjerda sailed alone at nightfall. It followed a north-northeast course along the Spanish coast. After passing Ibiza , the Medjerda reached the Catalan coast. On May 11, 1917, she was five nautical miles north-northwest of Cape Tortosa on the Spanish Mediterranean coast when she was hit on the port side by the torpedo of a German submarine at 7.10 p.m. It was U 34 again , this time under the command of Kapitänleutnant Johannes Klasing. The flooding was enormous, so that the struck vessel quickly flip side got. In the engine room , the boilers exploded when the cold sea water reached them. Flames and smoke enveloped the decks in no time.
The front mast fell with great force on the navigating bridge . Great panic broke out on board. The Medjerda sank in just two minutes (position 40 ° 45 ′ N , 1 ° 12 ′ E ), so that an orderly evacuation was not possible. Of the 575 people on board, 344 were killed (according to other sources 352), including almost all children. The survivors were picked up after 14 hours in the water by the British freighter Batten Hall , which brought them to their destination port of Port-Vendres on May 12th.
The wreck of the Medjerda lies at a depth of 60 to 75 meters off the Spanish coast.