SS ''Armenian'' was an 1895-built British cargo liner built for the Leyland Line, but managed by the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between ...

from 20 March 1903. She was employed on the cargo service between

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, with the passenger service between the two ports having been previously withdrawn. In 1910 she was repainted in the Leyland livery (a pink funnel with black top).

War service

;Second Boer War The ''Armenian'' was fitted out to transport horses and used as a transport in the

South African War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

. In 1901, the ship was briefly used as a prison ship for

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this a ...

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

Simon's Town Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern ...

in the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

. In the same year was she used to transport 963 Boer prisoners of war to Darrell's and Burt's Islands in

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, and 1017 Boer prisoners of war to India. In 1902, the ''Armenian'' transported a further 150 prisoners of war to India. ;First World War The ''Armenian'' made a last sailing on 3 March 1914 before being briefly laid up prior to deployment as a horse and mule transport to France. Although no longer fitted as a passenger vessel, the ''Armenian'', and the , were used to transport the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

to Belgium on 7 October 1914.

Sinking

On 28 June 1915 she was engaged by the German submarine captained by Rudolf Schneider off Trevose Head,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

. After a failed attempt at escape the crew were allowed to abandon ship and the vessel was sunk by two torpedoes fired into her stern. Twenty-nine members of the mostly American crew were lost in the sinking, along with the vessel's cargo of over 1,400 mules. Following on from the sinking of the 52 days earlier, the sinking caused a second crisis to develop between Germany and the United States as the majority of the men who died were Americans. The survivors were picked up the following day by the Belgian steam trawler ''President Stevens'', although four of the survivors later died.

Wreck

The 2002 discovery of the wreck turned out to be incorrect, with the wreck of the auxiliary cruiser HMS ''Patia'' being misidentified by amateur divers. SS ''Armenian'' was featured on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Dis ...

in an episode of Deep Wreck Mysteries entitled ''Search for the Bone Wreck'' where it was successfully located and identified by the wreck hunter and archaeologist Innes McCartney.Deep Wreck Mysteries home
/ref> The wreck of the "mule ship" sits upright in 95 metres of water, forty five miles from the reported sinking location given by the British. McCartney used German archival documents located in Freiburg-im-Breisgau to pinpoint the location of the site.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armenian Ships built in Belfast Passenger ships of the United Kingdom Steamships Ships of the White Star Line 1895 ships Ships built by Harland and Wolff Maritime incidents in 1915 Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I World War I shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Protected Wrecks of the United Kingdom