Relationship to Titanic disaster / inquiries.
In the early morning of 15 April, was westbound, 300 miles from the sinking site. Prior to 2:30 p.m. 14 April, Asian had been towing the disabled tanker Deutschland to Halifax.*
At 1:02 a.m., Asian picked up Titanic's distress signal and relayed it to other ships. Asian, along with Virginian, was known to have heard Titanic's transmission at 2:17 a.m.: "two faintly sounding V's."
Data:
August 4, 1898
Launched (as Columbian).
May 27, 1898
Maiden voyage, Liverpool-New Orleans (arr. 26 Dec) and return.
November 5, 1899
Boer War transport #39; took 10th Royal Hussars to South Africa in 28 days.
January 1, 1900
Taken over by Frederick Leyland & Co. (1900) Ltd. Renamed Asia.
April 8, 1918
English Channel: Attacked by a German submarine; torpedo missed.
September 17, 1924
Kinsale, Ireland: Ran aground on Stag Rocks, broke up.
*At 5:40 a.m. (Olympic's time), Asian, in a position report to Olympic, stated she was towing a disabled oil tanker to Halifax. Almost simultaneously Olympic received an inquiry from another station inquiring, "Are all passengers safe?"
The two messages overlapped and were misinterpreted by amateur eavesdroppers to indicate that "Titanic is in tow to Halifax with all passengers safe." This false information was printed by several newspapers and raised hopes that disaster had been averted.
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