RMS Leinster
Postcard image of the RMS Leinster
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| History | |
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| Name: | RMS Leinster |
| Owner: | City of Dublin Steam Packet Company |
| Port of registry: | Dublin, Ireland |
| Route: | Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire)-Holyhead |
| Ordered: | 1895 |
| Builder: | Laird Brothers of Birkenhead |
| Cost: | £95,000 |
| Yard number: | 612 |
| Launched: | 12 September 1896 |
| Completed: | January 1897 |
| Out of service: | 10 October 1918 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-123 on 10 October 1918 while bound for Holyhead. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Steamship |
| Tonnage: | 2,646 |
| Length: | 378 ft |
| Beam: | 75 ft |
| Height: | 42 ft |
| Installed power: | Single eight-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine |
| Propulsion: | Twin propellers |
| Speed: | 24 knots |
| Armament: |
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RMS Leinster was a vessel operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, served as the Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire)-Holyhead mailboat until she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-123 on 10 October 1918, while bound for Holyhead. She went down just outside Dublin Bay at a point 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) east of the Kish light. Over 500 people perished in the sinking – the greatest single loss of life in the Irish Sea.
The official death toll was 501. However, research by Roy Stokes, author of Death in the Irish Sea: The Sinking of RMS Leinster and fellow writer Philip Lecane, author of Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster, suggests the actual total was higher.
In 1895, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company ordered four steamers for Royal Mail service, named for four provinces of Ireland, RMS Leinster, Connaught, Munster and Ulster; these four were commonly referred to as "The Provinces".
The Leinster was a 2,640-ton packet steamship with a service speed of 24 knots (44 km/h). The vessel, which was built at Laird's in Birkenhead, England, was driven by a single eight-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. During the First World War, the twin-propellered ship was armed with one 12 pounder and two signal guns.
The ship's log states that she carried 77 crew and 694 passengers on her final voyage under the command of Captain William Birch. The ship had previously been attacked in the Irish Sea but the torpedoes missed their target. Those on board included more than one hundred British civilians, 22 postal sorters (working in the mail room) and almost 500 military personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. Also aboard were nurses from Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
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Wikipedia