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HMT Teutonic

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HMT Teutonic
HMT Teutonic.jpg
HMT Teutonic 1.jpg
History
Name HMT Teutonic
Owner Oceanic Steam Navigation Co.
Builder Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Launched 19 Jan 1889
Completed 25 July 1889
In service 1889
Out of service 1921
Fate scrapped
General characteristics
Type Ocean Liner
Tonnage 9,984 tons
Length 582 ft (177.7m)
Beam 57.7 ft (17.6m)
Propulsion twin screw
Speed 20.5 knots (37.97 km/h)
Capacity 300 x 1st; 190 x 2nd; 1,000 x 3rd class



Remarks

Built for the White Star Line to be used on the trans Atlantic Liverpool to New York route. Although she could carry 1,490 passengers, she was also the UK's first ship built to readily converted to an armed Merchant Cruiser and as such she carried eight 4.7" guns whenever they were required. During the Boer War she served as a troop transport. Remarkably, she also encountered a tsunami which was high enough to wash two lookouts out of the crows nest, yet survive without any other loss due to it being evening with no one on deck. In 1913 she very narrowly avoided an iceberg, passing within 6 metres of it in dense fog.


On 20th September 1914 she was requisitioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, refitted with 6" guns, and served with the 10th Cruiser Squadron when World War I began, Teutonic never returned to White Star service. The Admiralty purchased her outright on 16th August 1915 and used her as a convoy escort. In 1918, she was taken over by the Shipping Controller as a troopship and placed under White Star's management.


Laid up at Cowes, Isle of Wight in 1921 and was scrapped later the same year at Emden.

Soldiers carried

New York to Liverpool 14 June - 2 July 1918