SS Somali
From Our Contribution
 Postcard image from the period | |
 Somali as a Hospital ship | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | SS Somali |
| Owner | Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Greenock |
| Builder | Caird & Company, Greenock |
| Yard number | 298 |
| Launched | 17 May 1901 |
| Completed | 17 Jun 1901 |
| In service | 16 Aug 1901 |
| Out of service | 1923 |
| Fate | scrapped 1924 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Passenger / Cargo |
| Tonnage | 8,530 tons |
| Length | 450.3 ft (137.20m) |
| Beam | 52.4 ft (15.97m) |
| Depth | 30.5 ft (9.29m) |
| Propulsion | twin screw |
| Speed | 14 knots (25.93 km/h) |
| Capacity | 78 x 1st; 66 x 2nd class with crew of 162 |
Contents
Remarks
Owner was the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Used on the Far East route via the Suez Canal. On 26 Jul 1906 she collided with the SS Delta in Colombo with considerable damage to both ships. Later that year collided with the SS City of Edinburgh and the SS Clan Colquhoun in Suez. Four years later in 1910 she ran aground in the River Min (Central Sichuan Province, China). During the period 1911 - 1913 she was used for Colonial trooping by the British government, and in August 1914 she carried regular troops back to the UK from India and in February 1915 ferrying troops to Port Said. It then was used as a hospital ship during the Dardanelles Campaign.
Following a brief return to commercial service in 1916 she was requisitioned for transatlantic trooping. During one of those voyages two incendiary time bombs were discovered on board. During early 1918 she was found to be infested with rats though to be carrying the plague, with some men from the ship removed to hospital for treatment.
Post hostilities she made at lest two trips to Australia with returning troops before in 1920 being involved in a collision with Kwanto Maru at Moji in Japan. She returned to trooping to India and the Far East in 1922 before being laid up in the River Fal on 13 Oct 1923. On 8 Dec 1923 she sailed for Copenhagen in tow, and following her arrival two days later she was sold for demolition.
Soldiers carried
Malta to England 20 - 27 August 1915
England to Fremantle 26 December 1918 - 21 January 1919
- William Grenfell embarked 10 December
- Harold Stinton
- John James Thorpe
Southampton to Fremantle 1 June - 8 July 1919
Boarded 1 June, sailed 5 June 1919
- John Murray Nursing Staff
- Alfred Ernest Andrews
- James Arnold
- Edward Bailey
- Charles Bird
- Percy James Blake
- Cecil Walter Challis
- Walter Eugene Cockram
- William Edwin Cousens MM
- Thomas Hughie Culbertson
- Patrick (John) Curo
- Charles Henry Dohnt
- Reginald Samuel Roquerbre Dutton
- Claude Eustace Herbert Evans
- Joseph Charles Joshua Farnell
- Patrick Francis Fitzgerald
- Percy Fleming
- Harry Simpson Francis
- Walter Gaymer
- Arthur Charles Grafham
- Leslie Jeffery Harvey
- Robert Sang Herd
- Jason Howard
- Charles Kelly
- William Isaac Little
- Daniel Adkins Lewis
- Thomas Edward Tyrell Marshall Post WW1 men
- Harold Percival Martin
- Lewis George Martin
- Thomas Frederick McDonough
- Thomas McGow
- James Lawrence McKenna
- Charles Robert Merchant
- Albert Tom Milton
- Charles John Mitchell
- William George Munday
- John Murray Nursing Staff
- Gustaf Adolf Olson
- William Augustus Povah
- Isaac Robert Powell
- Richard Edgar Riley
- Alfred Martin Tilly
Notes
Sources: P&O Heritage Fact Sheet & Scottish Built Ships