Transylvania
1914
(Sextant SX-73)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 14,315 tons
- Dimensions: 549 x 66.5 ft.
- Machinery: Steam turbines, twin screw, 9,000 IHP = 16 knots
- Passengers: 2379 (305 first class, 216 second class, 1858 third class)
- Crew: 350
- Builder: Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co, Greenock, Scotland, 1914
- Service: Transylvania was the first geared turbine liner on the North Atlantic. Designed for an intended Mediterranean Cunard-Anchor Joint Service, which failed to materialize because of WWI. Maiden voyage 7 Nov 1914 Liverpool–Queenstown–New York in Cunard colors as shown here. Acquired by Anchor 4 Feb 1915, with first sailing in Anchor livery 23 March. Taken up for trooping in May, with capacity for 200 officers and 2,860 men.
On 3 May 1917 she left Marseilles for Alexandria with a full complement escorted by Japanese destroyers Matsu and Sakaki. On 4 May in the Gulf of Genoa she was hit in the engine room by one torpedo from German submarine U 63. Matsu closed to take off survivors while Sakaki tried to keep the submarine down, but U63 maneuvered to put another torpedo into Transylvania (barely missing Matsu) which promptly sank. A total of 20 officers, 373 men, and 11 crew were lost.
Near sister Tuscania was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Glasgow, for Anchor, with first sailing in 1915; she was also converted to a troopship and sunk by German submarine UB 77, 5 Feb 1918.
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