SS Persia (1900)

It was {{convert|499.8|ft|m}} long, with a beam of {{convert|54.3|ft|m}}, depth of hold of {{convert|24.5|ft|m}} and a size of {{GRT|7,951|disp=long}}, Persia carried triple expansion steam engines capable of driving the ship at {{convert|18|kn|lk=in}}.{{cite book |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |date=1902 |url=https://archive.org/details/HECROS1902ST/page/n629/mode/2up?q=persia&view=theater |access-date=1 March 2022}}

{{Location map|Mediterranean|label=|marksize=6|mark=Red_pog.svg|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=34|lat_min=10 |lat_sec=00|lon_dir=E|lon_deg=26|lon_min=00|lon_sec=00|position=right|width=177|float=left|caption=Wreck location}}

Persia was sunk off Crete, while the passengers were having lunch, on 30 December 1915, by German World War I U-boat ace Max Valentiner (commanding {{SMU|U-38}}). Persia sank in five to ten minutes, killing 343 of the 519 aboard. One reason for the large number of casualties was that only four of the lifeboats were successfully launched because of the list to port.{{Cite news|url=http://www.familyletters.co.uk/2-january-1916-ted-the-sinking-of-the-persia/|title=2 January 1916 – Ted – The Sinking of the Persia|date=2016-01-02|newspaper=familyletters.co.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2017-01-12}} The sinking was highly controversial, as it was argued that it broke naval international law that stated that merchant ships carrying a neutral flag could be stopped and searched for contraband but not sunk unless the passengers and crew were put in a place of safety (for which lifeboats on the open sea were not sufficient). The Persia was a British ship presenting itself openly to another belligerent. The U-boat fired a torpedo and made no provision for any survivors, under Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare but against the Imperial German Navy's own restriction on attacking passenger liners, the Arabic pledge.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

At the time of sinking, Persia was carrying a large quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh, though he himself had disembarked at Marseille. Among the passengers to survive were Colonel Charles Clive Bigham, son of Lord Mersey, 2nd Lieutenant John Lionel Miller-Hallett of the Gurkha Rifles, and John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. His secretary and mistress Eleanor Thornton, who many believe was the model for the Rolls-Royce "Spirit of Ecstasy" mascot by Charles Sykes, died. Also among the dead were Robert Ney McNeely, American Consul at Aden and a former North Carolina state senator from Union County, Robert Vane Russell, Captain Harry Lawrence Ainsworth, Adjutant of the 10th Gurkha Rifles, American missionary Rev. Homer Russell Salisbury,{{cite news |title=The Story of the Week |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wnmAAAAMAAJ&q=Homer+Salisbury+adventist&pg=PA77 |quote=Besides Consul McNeeley it seems there was another American drowned, for among the missing is the Rev. Dr. Homer R. Salisbury, a Seventh Day Adventist missionary, who came on board at Marseilles to go to India. He came from Battle Creek ... |newspaper=The Independent |date=1916 |accessdate=2013-11-23 |last1 = Bacon|first1 = Leonard|last2 = Thompson|first2 = Joseph Parrish|last3 = Storrs|first3 = Richard Salter|last4 = Leavitt|first4 = Joshua|last5 = Beecher|first5 = Henry Ward|last6 = Tilton|first6 = Theodore|last7 = Bowen|first7 = Henry Chandler|last8 = Ward|first8 = William Hayes|last9 = Holt|first9 = Hamilton|last10 = Franklin|first10 = Fabian|last11 = Fuller|first11 = Harold de Wolf|last12 = Herter|first12 = Christian Archibald}} Frank Morris Coleman, the co-owner of Bennett, Coleman & Company and Mary Fernandez, an Indian travelling ayah who had made the trip several times, working on this trip for a Mrs Bird, with a last address of the Ayah’s House, in Hackney.{{Cite web |date=2015-12-30 |title=The loss of the Persia |url=https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/the-loss-of-the-persia/ |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=Great War London |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Ayahs' Home {{!}} Blue Plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ayahs-home |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=English Heritage}}

The survivors on the four lifeboats were picked up during the second night after the sinking by the minesweeper {{HMS|Mallow|1915|6}}. Only 15 of the women on board survived, among them British actress Ann Codrington (The Rossiter Case), who was pregnant with her daughter, Patricia Hilliard. Ann lost her mother, Helen Codrington.

Sixty-seven crewmen from the then Portuguese colony of Goa perished. Most of them were stewards.Commonwealth War Graves Commission data, analyzed by Clifford J Pereira

The sinking was front-page news on many British newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch.

Service personnel who died on the SS Persia are recorded on the Commonwealth War Graves memorial at Shatby, Alexandria, Egypt.

File:Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum 14 - Persia bullion room door.jpg.]]

The wreck of Persia was located off Crete in 2003 at a depth of {{convert|10000|ft|m}}, and an attempt was made to salvage the treasure located in the bullion room. The salvage attempt met with limited success, retrieving artifacts and portions of the ship, and some jewels from the bullion room.{{cite web |url= http://www.scotsman.com/news/salvaging-a-sense-of-history-1-509046 |title=Salvaging a sense of history |work=The Scotsman |date=19 January 2004 |accessdate=25 February 2013}} Some of the gems have since been made into commemorative jewellery.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/fashion/gems-from-the-deep.html|title=Gems from the Deep|last=Colston|first=Penelope|date=2016-09-11|newspaper=New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2017-01-12}}

• Treasure hunting (marine)

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category|Persia (ship, 1900)}}

• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/articles/2008/05/20/sspersia_montagu_feature.shtml The Persia's fateful voyage, Indy Almroth-Wright, BBC]

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{{December 1915 shipwrecks}}

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Category:1900 ships

Category:Ships built on the River Clyde

Category:World War I shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea

Category:Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I

Category:Ships of P&O

Category:Steamships

Category:Maritime incidents in Greece

Category:Maritime incidents in 1915

Category:World War I crimes by Imperial Germany