Name Cathay Route London - Sydney Yard number 602 Launched 31 October 1924 Builder Barclay Curle | Port of registry UK, London Ordered 1923 Construction started 1924 Length 167 m | |
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Owner Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O) | ||
The SS Cathay was a British passenger ship that was sunk during Operation Torch in 1942 by a German air raid in the Mediterranean Sea off Bougie, Algeria.
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Construction
The SS Cathay was ordered in 1923 and laid down the following year at the Barclay Curle & Company shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland. It was launched by Lady Inchcape (wife of P&O's Chairman) on 31 October 1924. The ship was completed and acquired after completing its sea trials on 12 March 1925. The ship made its maiden voyage from London to Sydney on 27 March 1925.
The ship was 166.7 metres (546 ft 11 in) long, with a beam of 21.4 metres (70 ft 3 in) and a depth of 9.2 metres (30 ft 2 in). It was assessed at 15.225 GRT. It had 2 x 4 cyl. quadruple expansion engines driving double screw propellers and the engine was rated at 13.437 nhp. Its second funnel was a dummy.
Early career
After its maiden voyage in 1925, the SS Cathay kept on sailing for P&O on the Australian service route via the Suez Canal. In 1932 however, Bombay was added to its route. It also made an occasional run on the Far Eastern route.
On 14 December 1933 the SS Cathay lost a screw while trying to make up time between Colombo and Fremantle. It had to wait for repairs in Sutherland Dock, Australia, and returned to service in March 1934.
World War II
On 25 August 1939, the SS Cathay was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted at Bombay for service as an armed merchant cruiser. The second (dummy) funnel was removed and eight 6-inch and two 3-inch guns were fitted on the decks. The ship served on the Bombay–Durban patrol after its transformation in October 1939.
Sinking of SS Anselm
SS Anselm was a troopship that was part of a convoy consisting of the survey vessel HMS Challenger and Flower-class corvettes Lavender, Petunia and Starwort. On 5 July 1941 Anselm and its escorts were in the mid-Atlantic about 300 nautical miles (560 km) north of the Azores when a Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor patrol spotted them and signaled the German Type VIIC submarine U-96 to attack the convoy. The submarine only managed to hit the SS Anselm before fleeing from enemy fire.
The Anselm sank in 22 minutes and 254 people died; the 1,061 survivors were either picked up by the other escort ships or by Anselms lifeboats until SS Cathay arrived to offer assistance. It took on 900 survivors to relieve Anselms overloaded escorts and brought the survivors to Freetown without further incident.
Refitting as troopship
On 5 February 1942, the SS Cathay was returned to P&O and refitted as a troopship by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Brooklyn; it entered service again on 30 April of the same year.
Operation Torch And sinking
The SS Cathay was part of Operation Torch, which consisted of British and American troops invading French North Africa. It disembarked troops west of Algiers at the beginning of Operation Torch on 8 November 1942.
While the SS Cathay was returning to the port of Bougie, Algeria from Algiers on 11 November 1942, it was bombed by German aircraft at 1:30 pm. One person died as a result of the air raid, and the remaining crew tried to save the ship. The order to abandon ship was giving at 7:00 pm and all the remaining crew got off the Cathay safely. Some of the survivors were picked up by the British Indian ship SS Karanja. At 10:00 pm a delayed action bomb exploded in the galley and started a serious fire that made the ship unreachable. The following day at 7:00 am, its ammunition exploded and blew off the stern. At 10:00 am, the SS Cathay capsized on its starboard side and sank nearly 24 hours after being bombed.
Wreck
The current state of the wreck is unknown.