Rajputana (ship)
 Postcard from the 1930s
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The Rajputana was a 1926 commissioned passenger ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which was used in the passenger and mail traffic between London and Bombay . From 1939 she was used with the tactical identification F35 as an auxiliary cruiser in the Second World War until she was sunk by a German submarine on April 13, 1941 near Iceland .
history
In 1923, P&O left four new passenger ships on keel as part of a post-war development program . These were the four ocean liners of the so-called R-class, which were named after cities and regions in India and Pakistan . The Ranpura (1925, 16,688 GRT) and the Ranchi (1925, 16,650 GRT) were built by the Hawthorn, Leslie & Company shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne and the Rawalpindi (1925, 16,695 GRT) and the Rajputana by Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd. in Greenock , a branch of the Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff . The 166.72 meter long and 21.64 meter wide Rajputana was launched as the third of the ships on August 6, 1925. It was completed on December 30, 1925.
The ships of the R-class had a volume of over 16,000 gross register tons, a carrying capacity of over 8,000 tons and were equipped with four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines that enabled a maximum cruising speed of 17 knots. They each had two propellers , two masts and two chimneys. They were built to transport passengers, freight and mail from London to Bombay and back via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal ( India Mail and Passenger Service ) and were the first P&O ships to be equipped for the transport of frozen food. On board there was space for 307 first class and 288 second class passengers. The lounge, smoking room and music room of the first class were located amidships on the A-deck. The second class lounges were located in the rear of the A deck and on the B deck. The decorator, pilot and actress Lady Elsie Mackay (1893–1928) was largely responsible for the interior of the four ships . She was the youngest daughter of P&O Chairman James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape .
Use in World War II
On September 4, 1939 the Rajputana was requested by the British Admiralty as an auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser) and put into service in December 1939. The same was done with her three sister ships . The ship was provided with eight 152-mm cannons and two 76-mm cannons for its defense. During the Battle of the Atlantic , the Rajputana accompanied several convoys of ships from Bermuda and Halifax under the command of Captain Frederick H. Taylor .
In April 1941, the Rajputana was under the command of Captain Cyril Thomas Oswald Richardson (45) as part of convoy HX 117 in the North Atlantic . On April 9, she left the convoy as she was being sent on a patrol trip on the Denmark Strait . On April 11th at 9:45 am the ship was sighted by U 108 , a submarine of the German Navy , which was under the command of frigate captain Klaus Scholtz on its second patrol . U 108 took up the pursuit of the Rajputana , which followed a zigzag course at high speed and sometimes made 180-degree turns. The pursuit was made even more difficult by snow, pack ice and problems with the periscope .
The first two torpedoes fired at 6:08 p.m. on April 11 failed, as did the next two at 8:46 p.m. on April 12, and the fifth at 7:40 a.m. on April 13. The sixth torpedo, however, was a hit and hit the stern of the Rajputana , which then opened fire on the submarine. Fire broke out on board the ship. Two more torpedoes were fired in quick succession, one of which was again a failure. The Rajputana decreased to 9:30 over the stern with a heavy list to port (position 65 ° 50 ' N , 27 ° 25' W ). Captain Richardson, four officers and 35 lower ranks were killed in the sinking. The 283 survivors were picked up by the destroyer Legion and brought to Reykjavík . The Rajputana was the largest of the 26 ships sunk by U 108 .