R.M.S. Saxon
1900
(Albatros AL-173)
- Type: Passenger / general cargo
- Displacement: 12,385 tons
- Dimensions: 570 x 64 ft
- Machinery: Steam quadruple expansion engines, twin screw = 17.5 knots
- Passengers: 667 (310 first class, 203 second class, 154 steerage class)
- Builder: Harland & Wolff, Ltd, Belfast, Ireland, 1900
- Service: Ordered for the Union Line, she was launched in Dec 1899 just a few weeks before the merger with Castle Lines to form Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. Maiden voyage departed from Southampton Jun 1900 and reached Cape Town 3 July. Regular service between Southampton, Cape Town, and Durban with a call at Madeira. At outbreak of WW1 she continued in commercial service to South Africa with departures from London. Requisitioned in Jan 1917 for troopship service in the Mediterranean and then the North Atlantic. Returned to commercial service after the war. Had a serious fire after leaving Madeira in Aug 1921 and had to be escorted to Freetown, where another ship picked up her passengers and mails. Withdrawn from service in 1931 and laid up; sold for scrap in 1935.
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