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HMT Megantic

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HMT Megantic
HMT Megantic.jpg
HMT Megantic 1.jpg
History
Name HMT Megantic
Owner Oceanic Steam Navigation Co - (White Star Line)
Builder Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number 399
Launched 10 Dec 1908
Completed 3 Jun 1909
In service 17 Jun 1909
Out of service 1931
Fate scrapped 1933
General characteristics
Type Passenger liner
Tonnage 14,878 tons
Length 550 ft 4 in (167.74m)
Beam 67 ft 3 in (20.50m)
Depth 41 ft 2 in (12.54m) Draft = 8.34m
Propulsion twin screw
Speed 16.5 knots (30.56 km/h)
Capacity 230 x 1st, 430 x 2nd and 1,000 x 3rd class passengers


Remarks

Originally laid down as the Albany for the Dominion Line, she was purchased on the stocks by White Star Line and launched as the Megantic. With the outbreak of war, she was called into service as a troopship in 1915, and on On 30 May 1915 she was on a westbound voyage from Liverpool to Montreal when a submarine chased her off the south coast of Ireland. The liner safely outpaced the submarine. On 6th April 1917 she came under the liner requisition scheme. She was attacked in 1917 by the German submarine, U-43, but managed to escape unharmed. After the Armistice she repatriated members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and First Australian Imperial Force.


Following the conclusion of hostilities, she was returned to the White Star Line in December 1918 making her first post war sailing on 11 Dec 1918. After a refit in 1919 to enlarge her 1st class accommodation, Megantic returned to the Canadian service from Liverpool. She had another refit in 1924 and after 1928 operated from London and Southampton. Off-season, Megantic was often used for cruising from New York to the Caribbean and in the 1930s, for economy cruises.


Megantic made her last Atlantic crossing in May 1931 and was then laid up until February 1933, when she was sold for scrapping in Osaka.

Soldiers carried

Alexandria, Egypt to Marseilles, France 23 - 31 Mar 1916

Alexandria to England 6 - 12 August 1916