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HMS Osmanieh

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HMS Osmanieh
HMS Osmanieh.jpg
SS Osmanieh
HMS Osmanieh 1.jpg
HMS Osmanieh entering Valetta Harbour, Malta
History
Name HMS Osmanieh
Owner Khedivial Mail Steamship & Graving Dock Co., Ltd
Builder Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson
Yard number 761
Launched 9 May 1906
Completed August 1906
Fate sunk by mine 31 Dec 1917
General characteristics
Type Passenger and cargo
Tonnage 4,041 tons
Length 109.79 m (360.2 ft)
Beam 13.77 m (45.2 ft)
Depth 7.3 m (24 ft)
Speed 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h)



Remarks

Owned by the Khedivial Mail Steamship & Graving Dock Co, Ltd. This company was founded in 1898 to keep ships and ports in service with the Egyptian government. However, the ships sailed under the British flag and ran between Alexandria, Constantinople, Syria and other Mediterranean ports.


It served from 12 May 1916 as a troopship and supply ship for the Royal Navy in the First World War. On 23 Jun 1917 the ship avoided two torpedoes when it was attacked by a German submarine. She was not to be so lucky on 31 Dec 1917. On 17 Dec 1917, Osmanieh carrying soldiers and medical personnel left Southampton and set a course for Alexandria with a stopover in the southern Italian port city of Taranto. Taranto was reached on 28 December and Alexandria on 31 December. Near the harbour entrance, the steamer was struck amidships on the starboard side when the Osmanieh struck a mine laid by the Imperial German Naval U-boat SM UC-34 and sank in five to seven minutes with the loss of 209 lives, including eight nurses.

Soldiers carried

28th Battalion from Gallipoli to Mudros 13 Dec 1915