SS Britannia (1925)
| History | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name: | SS Britannia |
| Owner: | Anchor Line, Glasgow |
| Port of registry: |
 Glasgow |
| Builder: | Alexander Stephen & Sons Glasgow. |
| Yard number: | 508 |
| Launched: | 1 December 1925 |
| Completed: | 1926 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Steam passenger ship |
| Tonnage: | 8,463 GRT |
| Length: | 460 ft 1 in (140.23 m) |
| Beam: | 59 ft 7 in (18.16 m) |
| Depth: | 30 ft 8 in (9.35 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam, quadruple expansion engines (558 hp (416 kW)), Bauer-Wach exhaust turbine added, 1928 |
| Speed: | 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 175 first class passengers |
SS Britannia was a steam passenger ship built for Anchor Line by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Glasgow and launched in 1925.[1] On 25 March 1941, whilst off Freetown en route for Bombay, she was sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser Thor with the loss of 122 crew and 127 passengers.[2]
Survivor of the sinking, Lieutenant-Commander Frank West MBE, wrote a book, Lifeboat Number Seven, dealing in detail with the loss of the ship and his subsequent voyage from the sinking point to the coast of Brazil in one of the ship's lifeboats. 38 crew and passengers survived the lifeboat's 26-day journey, which was claimed to be the longest ever by a lifeboat at the time.
References
West, Frank (July 1960). Lifeboat Number Seven. London: William Kimber & Co.
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