HMAS Mallina

SS Mallina
Career
Name: Mallina (1909-1914, 1915-1929)
Seiko Maru (1929-1935)
Siberia Maru (1937-1944)
Owner: Australian United Steam Navigation Company, (1909-1914, 1915-1929)
Builder: Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number: 407
Launched: 1909
Completed: 29 April 1909
Career (Australia (RAN))
Name: Mallina
Acquired: 1914
Decommissioned: 1915
General characteristics
Tonnage:3213 gross tons
Length:330.5 ft (100.7 m)[1]
Beam:44.3 ft (13.5 m)[1]
Draught:23.3 ft (7.1 m)[1]
Installed power:643 Nominal horsepower[1]

HMAS Mallina was a 3,213 gross tons cargo ship built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast in 1909 for the Australian United Steam Navigation Company for the Rockhampton to Sydney cargo route.[2] She was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy in 1914, as a store carrier and collier. She was returned to her owners in 1915. She was sold in 1935 to Machida Shokai Kisen Kaisha, Japan and renamed Seiko Maru, before being sold to Kita Nippon Kisen Kaisha and renamed Siberia Maru. While steaming in the Sulu Sea, Philippines on 24 September 1944, she was attacked by United States aircraft and was sunk.

RAN Service

Mallina was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy in 1914, as a store carrier and collier, and commissioned as HMAS Mallina. She participated during the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force occupation of German New Guinea and later in concert with HMAS Australia in its search for Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee German squadron in the Pacific, and also supplied Royal Navy vessels patrolling off Central America.

Fate

She was bombed and sunk by United States aircraft in the Sulu Sea, Philippines, as part of Convoy C-203 from Manilla on 24 September 1944 with the loss of 95 men at 11°54'N, 123°10'E.

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Lloyds Shipping Register (1937-38)". Plimsoll Ship Data. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  2. ↑ "New A.U.S.N. Liner Mallina". The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 8 June 1909, p.8. Retrieved 10 August 2011.

References