Viceroy of India
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The Viceroy of India was a 1929 passenger ship of the British shipping company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which was used in passenger and mail traffic from Great Britain to India . During the Second World War , the ship served as a troop transport until it was sunk by a German submarine on November 11, 1942 in the western Mediterranean . The Viceroy of India was one of the ten largest ships sunk by German submarines during World War II .
Construction and equipment
The 19,648 GRT motor ship Viceroy of India was built at the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in the Linthouse district of Glasgow . It was laid down in April 1927 and was supposed to be called the Taj Mahal . The 186.53 meter long and 23.22 meter wide ship had a maximum draft of 12.65 meters and a deadweight of 9,180 DWT. The Viceroy of India was powered by two electric motors from the engine manufacturer British Thomson-Houston and two steam turbine generators, which made 17,000 shaft horsepower and enabled a top speed of 19 knots. The Viceroy of India was only the third ship in the world to be equipped with electric motors and the first of these to be built in Europe . The first class smoking room had a real fireplace and the lounge and music room were in the French style of the 18th century. There was also an indoor swimming pool in the Pompeian style. The ship was considered the crowning glory of the P&O fleet of the 1920s and was one of the shipping company's largest ships to date.
The passenger accommodations on board were designed for 415 first class and 258 second class passengers and were considered very luxurious. There were only single cabins connected by doors. In addition, there were adjacent rooms in which accompanying personnel could be accommodated. Lady Elsie Mackay (1893–1928) was responsible for the interior . She was the youngest daughter of James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape , who was Managing Director of P&O from 1914 until his death in 1932. Lady Mackay had also made a name for herself as an actress and aviation pioneer. It was the last ship she worked on, since she crashed in a single-engine Stinson SM-1 Detroit in March 1928 while attempting to cross the Atlantic.
The ship was launched on September 15, 1928. The shipping company had ultimately decided against the name Taj Mahal and instead chose Viceroy of India ( Viceroy of India ). There were several reasons for this. On the one hand, there were concerns that mail addressed to the ship might end up at the hotel of the same name in Bombay (and vice versa). The main reason, however, was not to upset the Indians and, above all, the followers of Islam , for whom the Taj Mahal was an important monument. The ship was christened according to the name Dorothy Onslow Wood, Lady Irwin (later Countess of Halifax), the wife of the then reigning Viceroy of India, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax .
During the completion of the Shieldhall Pier in Glasgow, the Viceroy of India was damaged amidships on January 8, 1929 when the steamer Corinaldo operated by Anchor-Donaldson Ltd. collided with her. The Corinaldo (7,131 GRT) tried to moor at the neighboring landing stage in thick fog and accordingly poor visibility when the accident occurred. On February 17, 1929, the test drives could still be carried out, in which the Viceroy of India reached a top speed of 19.6 knots.
Years of service
The Viceroy of India was built for passenger and mail traffic from London to Bombay ( India Mail and Passenger Service ) and was registered in Glasgow. On March 7, 1929, she left for her maiden voyage to India. In September 1932, she set a speed record when she covered the distance from London to Bombay in 16 days, an hour and 42 minutes. The ship's equipment, especially the swimming pool, made it ideal for the cruise market. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the Viceroy of India was therefore used seasonally for cruises every year . On February 11, 1939, she was the first P&O ship to call at the Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha during a South Atlantic cruise . The islanders were given a sewing machine, a gramophone and a box of tea by the passengers .
In the following years the ship was involved in a number of incidents. On April 10, 1937, she ran aground in strong winds and stormy seas in the Suez Canal . After she was released with the help of the Suez Canal Company tug Hercule , she stranded again, this time damaging her oar . Passengers and mail had to be disembarked, and the ship itself was repaired in dry dock in Malta . On November 23, 1929, the Viceroy of India rescued the 25 crew members of the sinking Italian steamer Santa Maria in the eastern Mediterranean .
When, in September 1930, the crew of the Greek cargo ship Theodoros Bulgararis had to be taken over by another ship because the ship's cargo had broken loose in the Bay of Biscay , the Viceroy of India was there to help if necessary. Three months later, on December 31, 1930, she came again to the aid of Theodoros Bulgararis , who had again got into distress in the Bay of Biscay and this time sank. The crew was picked up by the Viceroy of India .
She also came to the aid of ships of the White Star Line several times. On September 5, 1935, she rescued 241 passengers on the Doric , which had collided with the Formigny of the French shipping company Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis near Cape Finisterre on the north-west coast of Spain . On August 11, 1940, she took 279 passengers on board the Ceramic , which had collided with the freighter test bank of the Andrew Weir Line off the coast of Namibia .
Downfall
On November 12, 1940, the Viceroy of India was requested by the British Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) as a troop transport and converted to the Clyde according to the purpose .
On November 10, 1942, the Viceroy of India arrived in Algiers as part of convoy KMF-1A and brought soldiers ashore who were needed for Operation Torch . On the following day, she left for the return journey to Great Britain with a stopover in Gibraltar . The ship was under the command of Captain Sydney Herbert French and had 405 crew members, 29 gunners and 22 passengers on board.
At 5:24 in the morning on November 11, 1942, the Viceroy of India was hit northwest of Oran by two torpedoes from the German U 407 submarine . U 407 was a submarine type VII C , a so-called "Atlantic boat" which is under the command of Commander Ernst-Ulrich Brüller on patrol was. It had fired a fan of four torpedoes, two of which missed their target. At 05.31 hrs, U 407 shot a torpedo from the tail tube, which also missed. The Viceroy of India was of the Boadicea (Lt.Cdr. Francis C. Brodrick), a destroyer of the Royal Navy , taken in tow, but fell by 08:07 in position 36 ° 24 ' N , 0 ° 35' W . Four crew members were killed in the sinking. The 450 survivors were taken on board by the Boadicea and brought to Gibraltar.
The Viceroy of India was the largest ship sunk by U 407 and one of the largest ships sunk by German U-boats during World War II. As a replacement for the Viceroy of India, P&O ordered from Vickers-Armstrong, Ltd. the 24,215 GRT Chusan , which entered service in 1950.
literature
- Neil McCart. SS Viceroy of India: P & O's First Electric Cruise Liner (from the Famous British Liners range ). Maiden Voyage Booksellers (March 1993)
