SS ''Aden'' was a British combined sail and steam-driven passenger liner built in 1856 and owned by the

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company P&O (in full, The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) was a British shipping and logistics company dating from the early 19th century. Formerly a public company, it was sold to DP World in March 2006 for £3.9 billion. DP World ...

( P&O)SS ''Aden'' (1856)
P&O Heritage Fact Sheet and employed on the Far East services. Launched on 21 May 1856 as the SS ''Delta'', she was built by Day, Summers and Company of

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. She had a gross tonnage of 812 and measured 257 ft 6 inches by 29 ft 10 inches beam. Fitted with two direct-acting trunk steam engines of 210 ihp which drove a single screw, she had a service speed of 13 knots and could carry 112 first class passengers, and 22 in second class. Her name was changed in the expectation that P&O would take over the Suez/Bombay mail service from the East India Company. On her maiden voyage she ran from Southampton to Gibraltar. The ''Aden'' left Southampton on 1 October 1856 for Mumbai, arriving on 27 December 1856. In March 1857 she was involved in transporting troops to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

for the

Anglo-Persian War The Anglo-Persian War, also known as the Anglo-Iranian War (), was a war fought between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Qajar Iran, Iran, which was ruled by the Qajar dynasty. The war had the British oppose a ...

before transferring to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, where she was to remain for much of the rest of her service. On 28 February 1863 the ''Aden'' broke her shaft and lost a screw off

Amoy Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

and was forced to return to

under sail. After repairs at

Whampoa Dock Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock was a Hong Kong dockyard, once among the largest in Asia. History The Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company was founded in 1866 by Douglas Lapraik and Thomas Sutherland. It was located on the west Kowloon coast betwee ...

she re-entered service in March 1863. In 1864 she was extensively overhauled at Mumbai, being fitted with new boilers with super-heaters. At the same time she was fitted with new deck houses, bulwarks, forecastle, spars and rigging, etc. Each plate on her hull was also carefully examined. The ''Aden'' now could carry 33 first class passengers. In 1869 the ''Aden'' carried a number of official guests from

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

Port Said Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...

for the inauguration ceremonies of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

. In November 1872 she was sold for £15,000 to Prefect Chu,

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

who immediately sold her to the

China Merchants Steam Navigation Company China Merchants Group Limited ( zh, first=s, s=招商局集团, p=Zhaoshangju Jituan) is a state-owned enterprise (SOE) of the People's Republic of China. The company operates under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Transport. Founded in ...

of Shanghai where it became that company's first vessel. In 1875 she was reduced to a

hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk ...

.The Three SS Adens
The Old Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company c1835 - 1972
Liner Wrecks database The wreck of the Aden ILN0-1897-0710-0007

The wreck of the Aden ILN0-1897-0710-0007

She was the first of three ships to carry the name SS ''Aden''. The second SS ''Aden'' sank in 1897 off the eastern coast of

Socotra Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as ...

with the loss of much life. The third ''Aden'' was completed in 1946 and served worldwide in the tramp liner trade. She was scrapped in 1967.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aden (1856) 1856 ships Ocean liners of the United Kingdom Ships built in England Ships of P&O Steamships of the United Kingdom