Yarra (ship, 1884)
.jpg) The Yarra at Bennelong Point ( Sydney ), ca.1906
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The Yarra (I) was a passenger ship put into service in 1884 by the French shipping company Messageries Maritimes , which was used in passenger and mail traffic from Marseille to Australia and later China . During the First World War it served as a troop transport until it was sunk by a German submarine north of Crete on May 29, 1917 .
The ship
The 4,163 GRT steamship Yarra was built at the Chantiers Navals de La Ciotat shipyard in the southern French port city of La Ciotat and was launched on August 12, 1883. She was the sixth of seven identical sister ships that Messageries Maritimes put into service between 1881 and 1884 for passenger and mail traffic from France to Australia and New Caledonia . The others were the Natal (1882), the Calédonia (II) (1882), the Melbourne (1882), the Sydney (1883), the Salazie (1883) and the Océanien (I) (1884).
The Yarra was like her sister ships, a combined passenger and cargo ship, which also carried mail. The 130.75 meter long and 12.6 meter wide ship was initially propelled by a compound steam engine that developed 3400 hp and could accelerate the ship to up to 15 knots. The passenger accommodations were designed for 90 passengers in the first, 44 passengers in the second and 75 passengers in the third class. The steamer had two chimneys, a single propeller and three masts with the rigging of a barque .
On February 13, 1884, the Yarra set sail in Marseille on her maiden voyage through the Indian Ocean via Seychelles , Réunion and Mauritius to Australia and New Caledonia. In 1886 the ship was equipped with electricity and in 1895 the previous compound steam engine was replaced by a triple expansion steam engine that developed 4000 hp and increased the speed of the ship by one knot. At the same time the hull of the ship was painted white. From 1892 the Yarra served the Far East line. In 1905 the hull was painted black again. Between 1897 and 1909 the Yarra served the China route. From 1909 to 1914 she went back to Australia with a stopover in Madagascar . In 1911/12 the machines were modernized again.
Sinking
After the outbreak of World War I, in 1915 , the Yarra was used like many other French passenger steamers to transport troops. However, civilian passengers continued to be carried.
On Sunday, May 27, 1917 at 5:20 p.m., the Yarra departed under the command of Captain Marius Joseph Alexandre Tivolle with 150 crew members and 541 passengers on board in Port Said, Egypt, for a crossing to Marseille. She traveled in a convoy with her sister ship Océanien and the Russian steamer Imperator Nicolas II . The convoy was protected by the destroyer Arbalète , the gunboat Dédaigneuse and the British sloop Lily . There were also 1,900 tons of cargo on board, including sugar, coffee and 400 barrels of rum .
Two days later, on May 29 at 6:40 p.m., the ship was torpedoed 29 nautical miles northwest of Cape Sidero ( Crete ) by the German submarine UC 74 (Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Marschall ). The torpedo hit the port side at full speed , causing a large fountain of water to rise up the side of the ship. Captain Tivolle immediately ordered the engines to be stopped, but the chief engineer, Léon Galand, reported that this was no longer possible. An emergency call was made immediately by radio.
During the sinking, the Yarra was still going. It sank in 20 minutes (position 35.40N, 25.53E). 56 people died, including 38 passengers (other sources put the death toll as 8, 36 or 46). The survivors were picked up by the escort ships and handed over to the French cruiser Foudre the following morning .