SS Saxon

SS Saxon

History
Name	SS Saxon
Owner	Union Castle Steamship Co.
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number	326
Launched	21 Dec 1899
Completed	9 Jun 1900
In service	16 Jun 1900
Out of service	1935
Fate	scrapped at Blyth 1935
General characteristics
Type	Passenger / cargo
Tonnage	12,385 tons
Length	570.5 ft (173.74m)
Beam	64.4 ft (19.51m)
Depth	38.6 ft
Propulsion	twin screw
Speed	17.5 knots (32.41 km/h)
Capacity	310 x 1st; 203 x 2nd; 132 x 3rd; & 154 steerage

Remarks

Originally ordered by the Union Steam Shipping Co, she was sold while being fitted out to the Union-Castle Mail Steam Shipping Co. Used on the UK-South Africa route. Union Steamship Co. In August 1902 she arrived at Southampton with three Boer Generals, Botha, de la Ray and de Wet, the Boer War having ended on 31st May with the establishment of three Boer republics within the British Empire.

During World War I Saxon remained on commercial service, although her third-class was devoted to troop-carrying on occasion. (Since Southampton had become a military port when the war began, Saxon's British terminus was moved to London.) From 1917 on, she was used full-time for trooping, primarily in the Mediterranean, ferrying troops between Alexandria and Marseilles. After the Armistice she repatriated Australian troops before being refitted for passenger service again.

Saxon resumed her Union-Castle service in 1919, and remained on the mail service through 1930. She made her final sailing on the intermediate service in January 1931 and was then laid up as a "reserve" ship. She was scrapped at Blyth in 1935, the last survivor of the Union Line fleet.

Soldiers carried

England to Fremantle 21 September - 11 December 1918

• Frederick Robert Weedon

England to Port Melbourne 11 December 1918 - 31 January 1919

• Arthur Percy Thomas Boyle
• Walter Robert Hayes
• Henry McCavana disembarked in Fremantle 20 January
• William Richard (Billy) Orr