HMS Otranto
SS Otranto in Orient Line service, 1909
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | SS Otranto |
| Namesake: | Otranto |
| Owner: | Orient Steam Navigation Company |
| Port of registry: | London |
| Route: | UK–Australia |
| Ordered: | c. 1908 |
| Builder: | Workman Clark & Co., Belfast |
| Yard number: | 278 |
| Laid down: | c. 1908 |
| Launched: | 27 March 1909 |
| Completed: | 20 July 1909 |
| Maiden voyage: | 1 October 1909 |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Requisitioned by the Admiralty, 4 August 1914 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Otranto |
| Acquired: | 4 August 1914 |
| Commissioned: | 14 August 1914 |
| Fate: | Sank after collision, 6 October 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Passenger liner / armed merchant cruiser |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 535 ft 4 in (163.2 m) |
| Beam: | 64 ft (19.5 m) |
| Depth: | 38 ft 8 in (11.8 m) |
| Installed power: | 14,000 ihp (10,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Capacity: |
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| Armament: | 8 × 4.7 in (120 mm) guns |
HMS Otranto was an armed merchant cruiser requisitioned by the Royal Navy when World War I began in 1914. Built before the war for the UK–Australia run as the SS Otranto, she was primarily used during the war to search for German commerce raiders. She played small roles in the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 when the German East Asia Squadron destroyed the British squadron searching for it and in the Battle of the Falklands the following month when a British squadron annihilated the Germans in turn.
Apart from brief refits in the UK, Canada and Australia, she remained on this duty until early 1918 when she became a troopship. During a severe storm off the Isle of Islay in late 1918, she was rammed by another troopship and forced ashore by the storm, killing 470 passengers (American soldiers) and crewmen.
Otranto had an overall length of 555 feet 6 inches (169.3 m), a beam of 64 feet (19.5 m), and a moulded depth of 38 feet 8 inches (11.8 m). She had tonnages of 12,124 gross register tons (GRT) and 7,433 net register tons (NRT). The ship was fitted with two 4-cylinder quadruple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller. The engines had a total power of 14,000 indicated horsepower (10,000 kW) and gave Otranto a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). She had a capacity of 235 first-class, 186 second-class and 696 third-class passengers.
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