Name SS Lusitania Launched 1906 Draft 6.1 m | Yard number 519 Length 128 m | |
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Owner Empresa Nacional de Navegação Builder Sir Raylton Dixon & Company, Middlesbrough Fate Wrecked on 18 April 1911 Tonnage 5,557 Gross Register Tonnage | ||
The SS Lusitania was a Portuguese twin-screw ocean liner of 5557 tons, built in 1906 by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co, and owned by Empresa Nacional de Navegação, of Lisbon.
The ship was wrecked on Bellows Rock off Cape Point, South Africa at 24h00 on 18 April 1911 in fog while en route from Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique, with 25 first-class, 57 second-class and 121 third-class passengers, and 475 African labourers. Out of the 774 people on board, eight died when a life boat capsized. On 20 April the ship slipped off the rock into 37 metres (121 feet) of water to the east of the rock.
The sinking of the Lusitania spurred the local authorities to construct a new lighthouse on the Cape Point.
References
SS Lusitania Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA