Relationship to Lusitania disaster / inquiry.
Referenced by Cunard Chairman Alfred Booth during testimony regarding Welin davits used on Cunard vessels.
Data:
June 9, 1913
Launched at the Scott Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, Scotland.
December 27, 1913
Maiden voyage - Liverpool - Queenstown - Portland - Boston.
August 1914
Requisitioned as a troopship.
1915
Transported Canadian troops to war, taking part in the campaign at Gallipoli as well as carrying troops to Bombay.
1916
Returned to the North Atlantic transporting American and Canadian troops.
October 19, 1916
On a return voyage from New York, the vessel struck a mine two miles off the Royal Sovereign Lightship of Hastings, East Sussex. Attempts to beach the damaged vessel were unsuccessful the captain ordered her abandoned. Two members of her crew died in the sinking.
* At the time of her requisitioning as a troopship Alaunia's master was Captain Arthur Henry Rostron (Royal Naval Reserve). He had been the Captain of the Carpathia when it picked up survivors of the Titanic disaster in 1912
Location of wreck determined by Royal Navy survey, being Lat. 50˚41'00" N;
Long. 00˚27'15" E.
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