The 5,357 GRT steamship Portugal was built at the Chantiers Navals de La Ciotat shipyard in the southern French port city of La Ciotat and was launched on July 25, 1886. The 140.2 meter long and 14 meter wide ship was powered by a triple expansion steam engine with an output of 4,800 hp, which ran on a single propeller and could accelerate the ship to up to 16.5 knots. The steamer was built for passenger and cargo traffic from France to South America and could carry a maximum of 125 passengers in first, 90 in second and 700 in third class.
On August 5, 1887, the Portugal left for her maiden voyage to La Plata . In 1899 it was moved to the Alexandria route. In August 1912 the ship was overhauled in Marseille . Then the Portugal was used in the Black Sea . In October 1914 she was withdrawn from the Black Sea due to the war. On October 29, 1914, the Portugal was bombed by the Turks in Odessa , killing two of its crew members.
On March 30, 1916, the Portugal , which was then serving as a hospital ship for the Russians, was anchored off the coast in the Black Sea. In addition to the crew, on board was a medical staff consisting of three doctors, 20 nurses (including the Georgian Princess Aneta Andronnikova and Anna Feodorovna, Baroness Meyendorff), a pharmacist and an administrator. There she was attacked by the German submarine U 33 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Konrad Gansser . The first torpedo missed, but the second hit the engine room , tore the ship in two and probably lowered it to the position 42 ° 1 ' N , 41 ° 11' E within just two minutes. 115 people, mostly French and Russians, were killed.
42.01 41.19
