HMT Teutonic

HMT Teutonic

History
Name	HMT Teutonic
Owner	Oceanic Steam Navigation Co.
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Launched	19 Jan 1889
Completed	25 July 1889
In service	1889
Out of service	1921
Fate	scrapped
General characteristics
Type	Ocean Liner
Tonnage	9,984 tons
Length	582 ft (177.7m)
Beam	57.7 ft (17.6m)
Propulsion	twin screw
Speed	20.5 knots (37.97 km/h)
Capacity	300 x 1st; 190 x 2nd; 1,000 x 3rd class

Remarks

Built for the White Star Line to use on the trans Atlantic Liverpool to New York route. Although she could carry 1,490 passengers, she was also the UK's first ship built to readily converted to an armed Merchant Cruiser and carried eight 4.7" guns whenever she was required. During the Boer War she served as a troop transport. Remarkably she also encountered a tsunami which was high enough to wash two lookouts out of the crows nest, yet survive without any other loss due to it being evening with no one on deck. In 1913 she very narrowly avoided an iceberg, passing within 6 metres of it in dense fog.

On 20th September 1914 she was requisitioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, refitted with 6" guns, and served with the 10th Cruiser Squadron when World War I began, Teutonic never returned to White Star service. The Admiralty purchased her outright on 16th August 1915 and used her as a convoy escort. In 1918, she was taken over by the Shipping Controller as a troopship and placed under White Star's management.

Laid up at Cowes, Isle of Wight in 1921 and was scrapped later the same year at Emden.

Soldiers carried

New York to Liverpool 14 June - 2 July 1918

• Edward Stanley James