RMS Magdalena 1889
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Magdalena |
| Owner: | Royal Mail Steam Packet Company |
| Port of registry: | United Kingdom |
| Builder: | Robert Napier & Sons, Govan, Scotland |
| Completed: | 1889 |
| Maiden voyage: | 2 August 1889 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 5,362 g, |
| Length: | 421 ft |
| Beam: | 50 ft |
| Speed: | 15 knots |
| Capacity: | 540 passengers |
RMS Magdalena was an ocean liner completed in 1899[1] by Robert Napier and Sons at Glasgow in Scotland for Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.
As well as being a mail ship and liner, Magdalena was employed as a troopship in World War I.
Service history
Her maiden voyage on 2nd August 1889 was a charter by the Mayor and Corporation of the City of London in which they attended the Royal Naval Review at Spithead. The review had been ordered by Queen Victoria in honour of her nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II; Magdalena was the only merchant ship to take part[2].
The RMSPC then employed Magdalena on the South American route. By 1905, she was deemed to be too small for the route and was used mainly on the West Indies service. On 12th June 1912, while on route to Barbados, Magdalena went to the assistance of a sailing barque that had been becalmed; her crew had been living on a single biscuit each per day for 40 days[3]. At the end of 1912, Magdalena took the England Cricket Team on a successful tour of the West Indies.
In 1915, she was taken-up by the Admiralty as a troopship and became HMT Magdalena. She was employed moving Australian troops across the Mediterranean[4] and bringing West Indian troops to Europe. An influenza outbreak on board in January 1917 forced the ship into quarantine in Barbados[5]. In August 1918, the Magdalena brought the Gold Coast Regiment home at the close of the East African Campaign[6]. At the end of the war, she was laid-up and scrapped in 1921.
References
- ↑ The disambiguation date used in this article's title is not the year in which the hull is launched, but rather the year of the vessel's sea trial or maiden voyage.
- ↑ Merchant Fleets by Duncan Haws, vol.5, Royal Mail Line, Cambridge 1982
- ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=990CEED71F31E233A25757C0A9619C946396D6CF
- ↑ http://percysmith.blogspot.com
- ↑ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=7&CATID=-4544353&FullDetails=True&j=1&Gsm=2008-08-08
- ↑ Gold Coast Regiment In The East African Campaign, Sir Hugh Clifford, John Murray 1920
