A brand new liner built for the Far East trade at a cost of 328,202. Designed to carry 450 first class and 220 second class passengers, with a cruising speed of 19 knots. The largest ship in the company's fleet, she left London on Saturday 26 February, striking a mine at 10.30am on 27 February, foundering a very short time after. After striking the mine, the crew and passengers went to boat stations, the ship's engines being put into reverse to take the way off the vessel, but due to damage in the engine room, could not then be stopped, and she continued to go astern for some time at 8 or 9 knots. As the ship was now listing to 75 degrees, the boats could not be lowered. She sank in 20 minutes. The Canadian liner EMPRESS OF FORT WILLIAM endeavoured to render assistance, but was herself mined and lost. Year Built: 1916 Builder: Harland and Wolff Ltd. Engine HP: 1164 Propulsion: 2 x screw, 4 cylinder quad. Construction: 2 x masts; 2 x funnels; 20 x lifeboats; 3 x decks; p.deck 129ft.; b.deck + f.castle 414ft Owner: P and O Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. London Master: H S Bradsha. (1-2)

The Canterbury Divers visited the wreck site where they noted: The wreck was heavily salvaged by Rigadon-Beasley and is very broken up now being little more than a large sand filled mound, however the top is at 18m and the sides only drop down 2m to a max depth of around 20m, there are areas to poke around in but overall it’s a very clean site and does make a very good dive for inexperienced divers and training dives. The wreck is however only 2 miles out of Dover so can suffer from poor viz for a large part of the year. (3)

<1> United Kingdom shipwreck index, Page Nos. N/a (Bibliographic reference). SKE6340.

<2> Hydrographic Office wreck index (Bibliographic reference). SKE6339.

<3> Unknown, 2019, Canterbury Divers: Wreck Sites (Website). SKE52189.