Official Number: 125656
Laid down:
Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan
Launched: July 1907
Into Service: September 1914
Out of service: 15 August 1915
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:
July 1907 launched by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan as Yard Nr 450 named
CAIROfor Egyptian Mail Steamship Co Ltd, London
January 1908 completed for her owner’s Marseilles – Alexandria service and had accommodation
for 710 x 1st Class and 290 x 2nd Class passengers
1909 her intended service proved to be unprofitable as the owners could not compete well
well-established lines and she was laid up at Marseilles and offered for sale.
1910 purchased by Canadian Northern Steamships Ltd, Toronto, was extensively refitted by her builders for North Atlantic service and was renamed ROYAL EDWARD
12 May 1910 first voyage Avonmouth – Quebec – Montreal with accommodation for 344 x 1st Class, 210 x 2nd Class and 560 x 3rd Class passengers
27 October 1910 at Montreal Bedroom Steward John Martin discharged dead from a fractured skull
29 October 1910 at 53.08N 22.17W passenger Jean Grant (aged 10 months) discharged dead meningitis
2 November 1910 at sea Trimmer Walter Edward Sweet discharged dead from a fractured skull
19 May 1912 at 49.54N 39.05W passenger Alexander McGee discharged dead from a heart attack
17 July 1912 at 51.15N 9.12W passengers Stanislaw Wehborovski and Genowefa Wehborovski both discharged dead both from natural causes
13 January 1913 at 49.08N 38.22W 3rd class passenger Marie Erhardt (aged 11 months) discharged dead from pneumonia
14 July 1913 at Montreal Assistant Pantryman W C Davies discharged dead from a fracture skull
7 November 1913 at 53.03N 18.13W passenger Gladys Ida Buse discharged dead from natural causes
27 March 1914 at 43.08N 59.24W passenger James Bishop Peter discharged dead from natural causes
4 May 1914 at Bristol Trimmer William Henry Chaffey discharged dead from a fracture skull
23 May 1914 at Toronto Sailor W Close discharged dead from meningitis
25 May 1914 while on passage from Montreal to Avonmouth with 865 passengers and when 110 miles east of Cape Race was in collision with an iceberg while steaming at ‘dead slow’ in thick fog. Her stem was damaged and she was making some water in the fore peak
10 August 1914 at Montreal Trimmer Edmund H Stone discharged dead – missing
11 August 1914 sailed from Montreal to England with 500 troops
15 September 1914 at 51.13N 5.27W passenger Georgina Benger discharged dead from natural causes
22 September 1914 at sea Greaser John Stone discharged dead from heart failure
September 1914 completed her last voyage on this route and was requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as a troop transport , name unchanged
November 1914 was moored off Southend housing German PoW’s for a few months
The night of the 10 or 11 May 1915 while moored off Southend was attacked by the Zeppelin LZ38
which dropped an incendary bomb – the bomb missed
28 July 1915 sailed Avonmouth with Captain Peter M Wotton (Lieutenant Commander RNR) as the ships
Master (not as repeatedly reported elsewhere Commander P M Watton RNR)
29 July 1915 was reported off the Lizard
10 August 1915 at Malta
12 August 1915 sailed Alexandria
15 August 1915 was torpedoed and sunk by the German UB-14 (Oberleutnant zur See Heino
von Heimburg) six miles west of Kandeluisa, Dodecanese in the Aegean Sea while on passage
Alexandria to Mudros carrying troops. Different sources put the death toll at between 866 and
1,100 lives. The New York Tribune newspaper reported that over 600 lives were saved out of the
1,602 persons onboard. The CWGC has 131 members of the crew being killed including the ships Master