SS Medic (1898)

Postcard of SS Medic
History
United Kingdom
Name:	SS Medic
Owner:	White Star Line
Port of registry:	Liverpool
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	323
Launched:	15 December 1898
Completed:	6 July 1899
In service:	August 1899
Out of service:	1927
Identification:	Official number: 110573 Call sign: RDHF[1]
Fate:	Sold, 1928
Norway
Name:	Hektoria
Owner:	N. R. Bugge
Acquired:	1928
Fate:	Sunk, 11 September 1942
General characteristics (as built)[2]
Class & type:	Jubilee-class passenger-cargo ship
Tonnage:	11,973 GT
Length:	550 ft 2 in (167.69 m)
Beam:	63 ft 3 in (19.28 m)
Propulsion:	2 × 4-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines, 2 shafts
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Capacity:	320 passengers 100,000 refrigerated carcasses

SS Medic was a steamship built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line in 1899. Medic was one of five "Jubilee Class" ocean liners (the others being the Afric, Persic, Suevic and Runic) built specifically to service the Liverpool–Cape Town–Sydney route.^[2]

Medic, like her sisters, was a single-funnel liner which measured just under 12,000 tons and was configured to carry 320 steerage or third class passengers. Because these ships were launched in the last year of the 19th century, they were referred to as the "Jubilee Class".^[2]

She served as an Australian troopship in the Boer War and also in World War I. In October 1900, while anchored in Neutral Bay, Sydney Harbour she was involved in the "Fort Denison Incident", a prank intended to fool locals into believing a Boer raiding party was attacking the city. The citizens were not amused, and White Star apologised and paid damages to the city.^[3]

After a long life with White Star she was sold in 1928, renamed Hektoria, and converted to a whale factory ship. She was finally sunk by the U-boat U-608 on 11 September 1942 during the Atlantic Campaign of World War II^[2] with the loss of one crewman. The remaining crew was picked up by the Canadian corvette, HMCS Arvida.^[4]

References