The 12,077 GRT steamship Otway was built at Fairfield Shipbuilders in Govan near Glasgow . The ship, 163.32 meters long and 19.25 meters wide, had two funnels, two masts and two propellers and was propelled by two eight-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines that enabled a speed of 18 knots. The passenger capacity was 280 passengers in the first, 130 in the second and 900 in the third class. In addition to the dining room and the smoking room, first-class passengers had a music salon, a lounge, a reading and writing salon, a veranda café, several bars and spacious promenade decks . There was also an electrically operated elevator .
The Otway had five identical sister ships, all of which were put into service between 1909 and 1911: the Orsova (I) (12,036 GRT), the Osterley (12,129 GRT), the Otranto (I) (12,077 GRT), the Orvieto (12,133 GRT ) and the Orama (I) (12,927 GRT). The Otway was launched on November 21, 1908 and was completed in May 1909. On July 19, 1909, she ran from London on her maiden voyage via Suez to Melbourne , Sydney and Brisbane . It operated on this route until the outbreak of war.
In 1915, the steamer was requested by the Royal Navy for military service and converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser). On July 23, 1917, the Otway , which at that time belonged to the Northern Patrol , was torpedoed in the strait The Minch near the Isle of Lewis by the German submarine UC 49 (Kapitänleutnant Karl Petri) and sank at position 58 ° 54 ' N , 6 ° 28' W . Ten crew members were killed by the torpedo explosion. The Otway was the largest ship that UC 49 sank in World War I.
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