SS Ivernia
.jpg) Cunard Liner "Ivernia" | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Ivernia |
| Owner: | Cunard Line |
| Builder: | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
| Launched: | 1899 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk, 1 January 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 13,799 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 600 ft (180 m) |
| Beam: | 64 ft (20 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam quadruple-expansion engines geared to twin propellers |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Capacity: | 1,964 passengers (164 first class, 200 second class, 1,600 third class) |
SS Ivernia was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line, built by the company Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and launched in 1899. The Ivernia was one of Cunard's intermediate ships, that catered to the vast immigrant trade. Her sistership was SS Saxonia. The Ivernia worked on Cunard's service from Liverpool to Boston and then later on the immigrant run from Fiume and Trieste to New York City. [1]
Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 the Ivernia was hired by the British government as a troop transport and was placed under the command of Captain Turner (made famous for being the captain of RMS Lusitania at the time of her sinking).
On 1 January 1917 the Ivernia was carrying some 2,400 British troops from Marseille to Alexandria, when at 10:12am she was torpedoed by the German submarine UB-47 58 miles south-east of Cape Matapan in Greece. Within one hour the ship sank. HMS Rifleman rescued a number, and armed trawlers towed the bulk, who had taken to lifeboats, to Suda Bay in Crete. Approximately 120 people died in the sinking.
Today Ivernia Road in Walton in Liverpool still bears the name of the doomed vessel.
References
- ↑ Neil McCart, Atlantic Liners of the Cunard Line (1990), pp. 35-36.
External links
Coordinates: 35°42′N 23°19′E / 35.700°N 23.317°E