HMAT A24 Benalla
From Our Contribution
 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMAT A24 Benalla |
| Owner | Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company |
| Builder | Caird & Co of Greenock |
| Yard number | 322 |
| Launched | 27 Oct 1912 |
| Completed | 7 Feb 1913 |
| In service | March 1913 |
| Out of service | 3 Sep 1930 |
| Fate | scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Passenger Liner |
| Tonnage | 11,118 tons |
| Length | 500.1 ft |
| Beam | 62.25 ft |
| Depth | 31.75 ft |
| Propulsion | 9000ihp, twin screws |
| Speed | 14 knots (25.93 kph) |
| Capacity | 260 crew asa passenger vessel, could carry 350 - 1,100 passengers in 3rd class |
Contents
Remarks
Built for Pacific & Orient Steam Navigation Co, London. Leased to the Commonwealth until 6 Aug 1917. Refitted at Cockatoo Island Drydock between 1st and 14th October 1915 to transport 1,395 troops. The Benalla made four voyages from Australia carrying troops before being transferred to the British Admiralty on 6 Aug 1917. Prior to her conversion, on 19 Jul 1915 she caught fire in no. 2 hold when three days out of Capetown bound for Sydney with 800 emigrants on board; the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Otaki stood by, but Benalla reached Durban under her own power and the fire was extinguished, with some difficulty, by the local fire brigade.
On 3 Dec 1915 in the Mediterranean while carrying 2,500 troops she intervened in a surface fight between the SS Torilla and a German submarine, driving the U Boat off with her 4.7 inch gun and standing by the smaller ship until naval forces arrived. During she was taken over under the Liner Requisition scheme for the Shipping Controller’s transatlantic munitions and supplies service.
On 13 May 1921, now b ack in P&O service, she collided with SS Patella in thick fog and had to be beached in Pevensey Bay. All passengers were disembarked the following day by the tender Lady Brassey and landed at Dover, while shewas pumped out and patched in order to be towed to Royal Albert drydock in London for repairs before she could resumed trading.
In 1927 she carried the first load of steel used in the construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge. She was sold to Gentaro Kasegawa in Japan for demolition and arrived in Kobe on 28 Oct 1930
Soldiers carried
Adelaide to Port Suez 27 October - ? November 1915
- Clarence Roy Champion joined in Fremantle 1 Nov 1915
- William Grenfell joined in Fremantle 1 Nov 1915
- Joseph Sowden Kidd MM joined in Fremantle 1 Nov 1915
- Samuel Vivian Mortimer
- Harold Stinton joined in Fremantle 1 Nov 1915
- Frank Erle Waters joined in Fremantle 1 Nov 1915