Gloucester Castle
1911
(Navis NM-910)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 7,999 tons
- Dimensions: 450.5 x 56 ft.
- Machinery: Steam reciprocating engines, twin screw = 13 knots
- Passengers:
- Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Glasgow, Scotland, 1911
- Service: Built for the Union-Castle Line's Intermediate service.
In Sep 1914 she became a hospital ship and took part in the Dardanelles campaign in 1915. Torpedoed in the English Channel on 30 Mar 1917 by German submarine UB-32; only 3 of 399 paasengers died during transfer to rescuing trawlers. Two weeks were required to tow the ship to safety for repair. Resumed commercial operations in Apr 1919 on the Intermediate service, and later the Round Africa service. Laid up in 1939, she sailed again in Jun 1942. On 15 Jul, near Ascension Island, she was shelled and sunk by the German raider Michel. Of 154 on board, 93 were lost and the others taken prisoner, being sent to Japan for internment on board the German supply ship Charlotte Schliemann.
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