Transylvania (ship, 1914)
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The Transylvania (I) was a 1914 steamship of the British shipping company Anchor Line , which was briefly used as a passenger and mail steamer on the North Atlantic route between Europe and the USA. Due to the outbreak of war , the Transylvania was only in service for a few months. From May 1915 it served as an Allied troop transport until it was sunk by a German submarine on May 4, 1917 in the Ligurian Sea .
The ship
The 14,348 GRT Transylvania was built in 1914 at the Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company shipyard in the Scottish city of Greenock . The owner was the Anchor Line, which had been part of the Cunard Line since 1911 . She was the structurally identical sister ship of the Tuscania (I), which had already been completed in September 1914. The 167.11 m long steamer was powered by two Parsons turbines and six Scotch steam boilers , which acted on two propellers and enabled a speed of 17.5 knots (35.2 km / h). The passenger accommodations were designed for 1,379 passengers.
The ship was launched on May 23, 1914 and was originally intended to operate between New York and various ports of call in the Mediterranean region . Instead it was used on the route between New York and Liverpool from November 7, 1914 . The captain of the Transylvania was William Thomas Turner . From February 1915, Glasgow was integrated into the Transylvania route . In May 1915, after only half a year in commercial transatlantic passenger traffic, the Transylvania was requisitioned by the British Admiralty and used as a troop transport between Alexandria and Marseille . The premises were redesigned so that 200 officers and 2,860 soldiers could now be accommodated alongside the crew.
Sinking
On Thursday, May 3, 1917, the Transylvania departed under the command of Lieutenant S. Brennell in Marseille for a voyage to Alexandria (Egypt). The ship was escorted by the Japanese destroyers Matsu and Sakaki , who were commanded by Rear Admiral Kozo Sato. The passenger capacity was almost exhausted on this trip. The following day, May 4th, the steamer was attacked by U 63 four kilometers south of Cape Vado in the Gulf of Genoa . U 63 was a German submarine that was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Otto Schultze on patrol . The Transylvania was zigzagging at a speed of 14 knots when a torpedo from U 63 hit the engine room on the port side at around 10 a.m.
The ship hit headed for the nearby land, while the Matsu came alongside to take over the soldiers. The Sakaki tried meanwhile to prevent the submarine on appearance. U 63 shot a torpedo at the Matsu , which returned at full power and was able to avoid the projectile. The torpedo then hit the Transylvania again , which sank 40 minutes after the first hit. Ten crew members, 29 officers and 373 soldiers were killed in the sinking, including Captain Brennell. With 14,348 GRT, the Transylvania was the largest ship that sank U 63 .
In Savona , north of doom spot many dead were washed. 89 bodies were recovered and buried in a small cemetery in Zinola, Liguria . They were buried two days after the sinking in a separate area of the city cemetery. Other dead were buried in other parts of Italy, as well as in France, Monaco and Spain. Of the total of 85 Commonwealth graves from World War I in the Savona cemetery, all but two contain Transylvania fatalities . A memorial commemorates 275 other victims of the downfall who were not buried in this cemetery.
The survivors were rescued with the help of Ligurian fishermen who were eyewitnesses of the ship's sinking. In memory of the accident, a monument was erected in the town of Predani in front of the island of Bergeggi .
The well-preserved wreck was found off the coast of Liguria in 2011. The wreck was discovered by diving units of the Carabinieri with the help of a special robot at a depth of 630 m not far from the island of Bergeggi. It was found with the help of old documents that reported the accident. The steamer has broken apart and overgrown with algae and white corals .
Web links
- Entry in the Miramar Ship Index
- The Transylvania in the Clydebuilt Ships Database (with photo)
- Technical data and information on sinking
- Sinking of Transylvania in the submarine database
- Key data in TheShipsList (approximately in the middle)
- Report of the sinking in the New York Times, May 25, 1917
Footnotes
- ^ Wreckage of a steamship sunk during World War I found. In: derStandard.at. October 7, 2011, accessed December 14, 2017 .
Coordinates: 44 ° 15 ′ 0 ″ N , 8 ° 30 ′ 0 ″ E