The Slavonia was built in 1902 by the Sir James Laing and Sons shipyard for the British India Steam Navigation Company . The ship was initially called Yamuna and sailed on the London - Calcutta - Burma route . With 100 first-class, 48 second-class and 800 intermediate deck spaces, it was oversized for this route, and so it was sold to the Cunard Line in 1904, which renamed it Slavonia and converted it for use on the North Atlantic . It was now able to accommodate 71 first class passengers , 74 second class passengers and 1954 third class passengers. On March 17, 1904, the Slavonia ran out of Sunderland for her first voyage and reached the port of Trieste on March 29. As a result, the Slavonia served as an emigration ship on the route Trieste - Fiume - Palermo - New York .
Last drive
On June 3, 1909, the Slavonia left New York for its last voyage. The next stop should be in Gibraltar on June 14th . There were 110 first and second cabin passengers and about 300 third class passengers on board. The ship also transported copper and coffee as cargo , which were to be unloaded in the Austrian ports of Trieste and Fiume.
The sinking of Slavonia , June 10th, 1909.
The usual shipping route to Gibraltar was about 70 nautical miles north of the Azores . At the request of first-class passengers wishing to take a look at the islands, Captain Arthur George Dunning gave the order on June 9 to steer south around Flores . In the afternoon the ship got into thick fog , which made navigation difficult. As Dunning later stated, an unexpectedly strong northward current is said to have distracted the ship from its intended course. On the night of June 10, the Slavonia drove to the cliffs of the Ilhéu da Baixa Rasa near Lajedo in the southwest of Flores .
The captain then sent the Marconi Company (" CQD ") emergency signal, which is common on British ships, and for the first time also the SOS, which has been in effect internationally since 1908. Two German ships located nearby intercepted the emergency call: the Batavia of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) and the Princess Irene of the North German Lloyd (NDL). The Princess Irene , who was 180 nautical miles away at the time, reached the scene of the accident on the evening of June 10th and picked up the 110 cabin passengers that night. The Batavia , which had left Hoboken two hours before the Slavonia and stayed close to it during the entire voyage, took over the third-class passengers. The crew , with the exception of the captain and the first officer, who remained on board the wrecked ship, were only taken from the Lusitania to Great Britain at the end of June , after the cargo had also been recovered. Attempts to rescue the Slavonia with the help of the salvage steamer Ranger , which had come from Liverpool , failed. During a storm the Slavonia broke up and sank.
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