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Unit / Ship / Establishment:
SS Persia
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Detail : |
| Mike: On December 30TH SS Persia was 71 miles south east by south of Cape Martello, Crete, when she was torpedoed without warning by the U38. The Captain of the U-boat was Christian August Max Alhmann Valentiner. This was a clear contravention of International Law and the Rules of Prize Warfare. Valentiner was awarded the highest Prussian honour of the Pour le Merite. The Persia (7,974 tons) had been built at Greenock in 1900, and was a sister ship of the Egypt, Arabia, China, and India, belonging to a class of vessel which was, at the time of building, the largest in the P. & O. Company's service. She held a passenger certificate issued by the Government of Bombay, allowing 530 passengers and 300 crew. The lifeboat accommodation, consisting of eighteen lifeboats capable of accommodating 830 persons, was far more than sufficient for all persons on board at the time of the casualty, and the large loss of life was 1 Vol. I., pp. 410-28. 204 CH. VIII] TORPEDOED WITHOUT WARNING 205 accounted for by the fact that the vessel took a sudden list after being torpedoed and sank within five minutes. Owing to the list it was not possible to lower the starboard boats, and owing to the short time she remained afloat only five or six of the port boats could be lowered. The Persia left Tilbury on December 18th with 201 passengers, including many women and children, and had a crew of 317. She was bound for Port Said, Aden, and Bombay, and in addition to mails carried a general cargo. The early stage of the voyage was uneventful ; the Persia called en route at Gibraltar and Marseilles, and then at Malta, where five of the passengers and two of the crew were landed. On Thursday, December 30th, at about ten minutes past one in the afternoon, when the Persia (master, Mr. W. H. S. Hall) had reached a position about lat. 34? 1' N., long. 26? 0' E., she was torpedoed, without warning, by a German submarine. The passengers were at lunch at the time, the second officer, Mr. Harold Geoffrey Stephen Wood, was in charge on the bridge, Captain Hall and the chief officer, Mr. Gerald Clark, both being in their cabins. As usual precautions against the submarine menace had been adopted. On the previous day everyone on board had been assigned to a boat and drill had taken place. Instructions had been issued that all passengers in case of emergency were to assemble on the promenade deck, the boats, it was added, would be let down from the boat deck above until they reached the level of the promenade deck, when the passengers would get into them. There was no thought that only a matter of five minutes would be available for saving everyone on board.The second officer caught sight of the wake of a torpedo rapidly approaching the Persia about four points on the port bow. It was so close that before Mr. Wood could turn to put the helm hard a-starboard the vessel had been struck?just abaft the forward funnel on the port side, a violent explosion shaking the ship from stem to stern. This explosion was immediately followed by a second one, due to the blowing up of the boilers. |
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