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HMT Osmanieh

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HMT Osmanieh
HMT Osmanieh.jpg
HMT Osmanieh 1.jpg
History
Name HMT Osmanieh
Owner Khedivial Mail Steamship & Graving Dock Co Ltd, London
Builder Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend
Yard number 761
Launched 9 May 1906
Completed August 1906
In service 1906
Out of service 31 Dec 1917
Fate Mined and sank
General characteristics
Type Passenger/cargo
Tonnage 4.041 tons
Length 360 ft 2 in (109.77m)
Beam 45 ft 2 in (13.76m)
Depth 16 ft 2 in (4.92m)
Propulsion twin screw
Speed 17 knots (31.48 km/h)
Capacity Accommodation for 144 x 1st Class & 76 x 2nd Class passengers



Remarks

Sometimes spelt as 'Osmanich'. Built for the Khedivial Mail Steamship and Graving Dock Co, Ltd, London, she was at the time of her loss, hired by the British Royal Navy as a troop transport. Her normal beat was the eastern Mediterranean Sea visiting Alexandria, Constantinople, and Syrian ports.


On 23 Jun 1917 the ship evaded two torpedoes fired by a German submarine, but on 31 Dec 1917 she was not as lucky when, with troops and medical personnel from Southampton aboard, she was sunk by a mine laid the previous day by the German submarine UC-34 at the entrance to the Alexandria Harbour. The ship sank in five to seven minutes, killing 199 people, including her Captain and 23 of the crew, a Royal Navy officer, 166 other ranks and the eight nurses of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service.

Soldiers carried

Anzac Cove to Mudros 12 - 14 December 1915

28th Battalion, less its Machine Gunners (they were amongst the last to leave on the evening of the 19/20th December).