Salsette (ship, 1908)
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The Salsette (II) was a 1908 posed in service passenger ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P & O), the passenger and freight traffic from the UK to India was used. On July 20, 1917, the Salsette was sunk southwest of the Isle of Portland by a German submarine . 15 people died.
The ship
The 5,842 GRT steamship Salsette , the second P&O ship with this name, was built at the Caird & Company shipyard in Port Glasgow, Scotland, and was launched on April 3, 1908. The 134, 1 meter long and 16.2 meter wide steamer had two chimneys, two masts and two propellers made of bronze and was powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines that could accelerate it to 20 knots. On July 2, 1908, the salsette was completed. From then on it served in express mail and passenger transport from Great Britain to Bombay via Aden . The passenger capacity was 100 first class and 120 second class passengers.
With her white hull , its yellow painted chimneys and their 600 portholes looked like they a yacht and was considered one of the most beautiful ships with a straight Steven described. On its maiden voyage , the Salsette broke the previous record for the fastest crossing from Marseille to Bombay and later that from Bombay to Aden. Although it rolled at top speed and also absorbed a lot of water, it was still very popular with paying customers.
After the outbreak of war, it was above all their high speed that protected them from attacks by submarines. At 20 knots, she was faster than any submarine that could make a maximum of 13.5 knots on the surface and only 7 knots submerged. The 4.7-inch cannon that had been mounted in its stern was never used.
Downfall
On July 20, 1917, the Salsette, with 31 passengers, 20 tons of cargo and 23 mail bags under the command of Captain Albert Armitage , was en route from London to Marseille and Bombay, as it was about 15 nautical miles southwest of Portland Bill, the southern tip of the Isle of Portland on the English south coast, was torpedoed by the German submarine UB 40 (Oberleutnant zur See Hans Howaldt ). The Maat Arthur Vaughn was able to track the bubble of torpedoes see and call "hard to starboard", but an evasive maneuver, it was too late.
The torpedo struck amidships on the starboard side , where it killed 15 crew members in the coal bunkers and in the engine room . The detonation hurled a column of water 15 meters high into the air, which carried several lifeboats with it. Captain Armitage ordered the evacuation of the ship, which was completed in just five minutes. 45 minutes after the torpedo, the salsette went under. After losing his ship, Armitage was given command of the P&O steamer Karmala .
The wreck of the Salsette is about 32 meters deep on its port side and is now a popular diving destination (position 50 ° 29 ′ 44.2 ″ N , 2 ° 44 ′ 37.4 ″ W ).
Web links
- Technical details of the ship and description of the sinking in the wreck database
- Entry in the submarine database
- The Salsette (II) in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- Details of the history of the ship ( April 2, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ) on a UK diving website
- The salsette in a list of P&O ships (at the bottom) ( Memento from February 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- 13-minute video about the wreck of the Salsette on youtube.com