Official Number:                      110643  

Laid down:

Builder:                                   C.S. Swan & Hunter, Wallsend

Launched:                               21 September 1899

Into Service:                            1914

Out of service:                         1 July 1917

Fate:                                      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:

21 September 1899 launched by C.S. Swan & Hunter, Wallsend as Yard Nr: 247 named IVERNIA for Cunard Steamship Co Ltd, Liverpool by the Countess of Ravensworth

23 April 1900 at 40.32N 70.14W passenger Katie Boyle discharged dead with diptheria

12 June 1900 first voyage Liverpool – Queenstown – Boston

24 June 1900 at Boston Fireman Peter Jones discharged dead – internal injuries

30 September 1900 at sea passenger James Bridge discharged dead – heart attack

30 October 1900 at sea passenger Auguste Dizac discharged dead – natural causes

2 June 1901 at 41.31N 35.22W Waiter Paul Forrester discharged dead – cancer

24 September 1902 at Huskinsson Dock, Liverpool fitted with Marconi radio equipment

23 February 1903 at sea passenger Griffith Griffiths discharged dead – consumption

18 June 1903 at sea passenger Mary Kent Scott discharged dead – TB

29 August 1903 at sea infant Johan C Holdvaght discharged dead – natural causes

28 September 1903 at sea passenger Patrick D’Arcy discharged dead – natural causes

20 October 1903 sailed from Liverpool for Boston

21 October 1903 at sea infant Lily Thornhill discharged dead – double pneumonia

25 July 1904 at 41.23N 55.43W child Hilja Nilsen discharged dead – meningitus

24 May 1911 while on passage from Boston to Queenstown and Liverpool with 728 passengers in dense fog struck Daunt’s Rock outside Queenstown Harbour causing serious damage to her stemand forward compartments. The bow was deep in the water with her propellers barely touching thewater astern. She entered Queenstown Harbour and anchored in the Kinloch Channel. The ship had a serious list to port. The vessel was later moved by an Admiralty tug to Spike Bank to prevent her sinking into deep water

17 October 1911 returned to her UK/US service having been repaired

14 November 1911 last voyage on the above route

21 December 1911 first voyage Trieste – Messina –  Naples –  New York

30 November 1912 resumed sailings on the Boston – Liverpool route

18 March 1913 last voyage Liverpool – Boston

29 April 1913 resumed sailings on the Trieste – New York route

28 July 1914 last voyage Trieste – Fiume – Patras – Messina – Naples – Boston – New York

1914 requisitioned by the Admiralty

26 December 1916 sailed from Marseilles bound for Alexandria

31 December 1916 HMS RIFLEMAN joined her as an escort

1 January 1917 torpedoed and sunk by the German UB-47 near Cape Matapan, Greece

with the loss of 36 members of the crew and 3 officers and 82 other ranks

27 October 1917 H.M. the King awarded the Bronze Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life

at Sea to Captain Eric D Gairdner DSO RAMC (T), Lance Corporal Herbert F Crandall,

Yeomany and Private Harry H H Jackson, Highland Light Infantry in recognition of their

services when the Ivernia was sunk on 1 January 1917