Official Number:                       106629

Laid down:

Builder:                                   Wm. Doxford & Sons Ltd., Pallion Yard, Sunderland

Pennant No:                            Y 3.969

Signal Letters:                         PWQK

Launched:                               9 December 1897

Into Service:                            27 March 1915

Out of service:                         20 April 1917

Fate:                                      20 April 1917 torpedoed and sunk

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW1 to augment the ships of the RFA

Career Data:

9 December 1897  launched by Wm. Doxford & Sons Ltd. Pallion Yard, Sunderland as Yard Nr 258 named CAITHNESS for Sutherland Steamship Co Ltd (A. M. Sutherland, Manager) Newcastle-upon-Tyne

10 December 1897 the Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported …

1898 Register opened at Newcastle-upon-Tyne as Nr 4/1898 in the Register Book

February 1898 completed

12 February 1898 sailed from Blyth for Bombay with a cargo of coal

27 March 1915 requisitioned for service as an Expeditionary Force Transport 

4 February 1916 served as a collier and was then temporarily released until 29 March 1916

27 June 1916 served as a collier until 13 August 1916

6 January 1917 served as a collier until 3 May 1917

20 April 1917 torpedoed and sunk by U-52 (Kptlt. Hans Walther) in the Atlantic 130 miles NW x N of Cape Ortegal, Spain  in position 4°48 N 11°07 W outbound from the Tyne carrying coal with the loss of 47 lives, including that of her Master