HMHS Grantully Castle

HMHS Grantully Castle
	Hospital train in foreground transferring patients to Grantully Castle
History
Name	HMHS Grantully Castle
Owner	Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company of London
Builder	Barclay Curle & Company, Glasgow
Yard number	477
Launched	14 Oct 909
Completed	15 Dec 1909
In service	1910
Out of service	20 Jul 1939
Fate	scrapped 1939
General characteristics
Type	Passenger / Cargo
Tonnage	7,606 tons
Length	450 ft 7 in (137.34m)
Beam	54 ft 4 in (16.55m)
Depth	30ft 7 in (9.33m)
Propulsion	twin screw
Speed	13 knots (24.08 km/h)
	v; t; e;

Remarks

In January 1915 she was being used as a troopship supporting the atttempt by the British and French Navies to force a passage through the Dardenelles. She waited at Mudros in company with the Alnwick Castle and Balmoral Castle for five weeks from 18 March until 23 April 1915 while attempts were made to force the Dardenelles. With the failure of the naval action, they took part in the British landings on the Gallipoli Peninsular in late April 1915. By the time they eventually landed troops, it was for them to meet opposition from a re-inforced Turkish army.

HMHS Grantully Castle left the Dardanelles on 1st May 1915 for Malta where she was commissioned as a hospital ship with 560 beds to service 18 Officers, 184 Cots, 358 Berths. She operated as such from 22 Jun 1915 until 11 Mar 1919, and during 1917 & 1918 she performed a regular service carrying injured and sick troops from French ports across the Channel to English ports, carrying a medical staff of 10 Officers, 15 Nurses and 59 Orderlies/others.

On 11 Mar 1919 she was returned to the Union-Castle Line and served them until she was scrapped in 1939 having had brief periods of being laid up in 1930, 1933 and 1936.