SS Delhi

The SS Delhi was a steamship of the Peninsular & Orient Line (P&O) that was lost off Cape Spartel, northern Morocco on 12 December 1911. Among the passengers was Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, whose subsequent death in Egypt was ascribed to ill-health caused during the wreck, and his family, the Princess Royal and daughters Princesses Alexandra and Maud.

Delhi was a modern ship, built in 1905/6 by Caird & Co., of Greenock, one of a class of four ships (Delta, Evanha and Dongola). She had a displacement of 8090 tons and a capacity of 163 first class and 80 second class passengers.

The ship, carrying a hundred passengers, ran aground in fog and heavy seas and her lifeboats were smashed. Three warships, the British battleship HMS London and cruiser HMS Duke of Edinburgh and the French cruiser Friant responded to the Delhi's distress calls, made by wireless. The Gibraltar lifeboat also assisted, with the Captain of the Port, Commander William Niles as volunteer coxswain (Niles had had previous experience as coxswain on Cardigan lifeboat).

Ship's boats from the warships ferried survivors to shore or to the warships, taking five days to complete the rescue. The bad weather made the rescue difficult and at least one British boat capsized and the Gibraltar lifeboat was stove in and became half full of water; three French sailors were lost in a separate rescue attempt.

Several awards of The Board of Trade Medal for Saving Life at Sea, in silver, were made including Max Horton, who later commanded the British Western Approaches during World War II, Commander William Niles, Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher George Francis Maurice Craddock, KCVO, CB, and Lt Noel Corbett of the London (who also received the Royal Humane Society's silver medal, for the rescue of a seaman washed overboard during the rescue efforts)

External link

• New York Times account of rescue