SS ''Britannia'' was a UK

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

that was built in Scotland in 1925–26 and operated by Anchor Line (Henderson Brothers). In 1941 a

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merchant raider Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels. History Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I (1914–1918), and again early in World War II (1939–1945). The cap ...

sank ''Britannia'' with the loss of 249 lives.

Building and peacetime career

Alexander Stephen and Sons Alexander Stephen and Sons Limited, often referred to simply as Alex Stephens or just Stephens, was a Scottish shipbuilder, shipbuilding company based in Linthouse, Glasgow, on the River Clyde and, initially, on the east coast of Scotland. Hist ...

of Linthouse,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

built ''Britannia'', launching her on 1 December 1925 and completing her in March 1926. She was long and had a beam of . As built her tonnages were and . She had a quadruple expansion engine that developed 558 NHP and gave her a cruising speed of . On 3 March 1926 ''Britannia'' began her maiden voyage from Glasgow to

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

, which became her regular route. By 1930 ''Britannia'' was equipped with wireless

direction finding Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a naturall ...

. By 1937 an

echo sounding Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth (coordinate), depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and ...

device had been added.

Loss

On 25 March 1941 ''Britannia'' was in the Atlantic 750 miles west of

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''en route'' from

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to Bombay when the intercepted her. ''Britannia''s wireless operator transmitted an "RRR" raider warning message, which a radio station in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

acknowledged. ''Britannia'' was defensively armed with one naval gun on her stern. She resisted the

for more than an hour before her

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, Captain Collie, gave the order to abandon ship. ''Thor''s bombardment had damaged some of ''Britannia''s lifeboats. Sources disagree as to whether ''Thor''s Captain,

Otto Kähler Otto Kähler (3 March 1894 – 2 November 1967) was a German admiral during World War II. He commanded the , a merchant raider, on two combat patrols and sank or captured 12 ships, for a combined tonnage of of Allied shipping. He was a recipie ...

, ordered a pause in the bombardment to allow ''Britannia'' to lower her boats and get everyone away, but they agree that he did not stop to rescue survivors. After 36 hours the Spanish ship ''Bachi'' rescued 63 survivors. On 29 March the Spanish ocean liner ''Cabo de Hornos'', sailing from South America to Spain, rescued 77 survivors from various boats and a raft near

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

. ''Britannia''s Third Officer, William McVicar, commanded lifeboat number seven. It was certified to carry 56 people but packed with 82, some of whom were wounded. Although they were nearer Africa than South America, McVicar elected to sail west due to the prevailing currents and winds. The voyage lasted 23 days, in which time 44 people in the boat died. After sailing 1,535 miles the 38 survivors came ashore near São Luís in Brazil. For their achievement McVicar and the ship's surgeon, Nancy Miller, were awarded the MBE. One of the survivors from McVicar's boat, Lt-Cdr Frank West MBE, wrote a book, ''Lifeboat Number Seven'', describing their voyage. In total 122 of ''Britannia''s crew and 127 of her passengers were lost.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* (newsreel of ''Britannia's'' launch, 1925). {{DEFAULTSORT:Britannia (1925) 1925 ships Maritime incidents in March 1941 Ocean liners of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde Steamships of the United Kingdom World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean