SS Rajputana
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{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = SS Rajputana, color.jpg | Ship caption = SS Rajputana }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = United Kingdom | Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|UK|naval}} | Ship name = Rajputana | Ship namesake = | Ship owner = | Ship operator = | Ship registry = | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship awarded = | Ship builder = Harland & Wolff, Greenock | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = 661{{cite book|last1=McCluskie|first1=Tom|title=The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff|date=2013|publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud|isbn=9780752488615|page=133}} | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = 1925 | Ship launched = 6 August 1925 | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship completed = 30 December 1925 | Ship acquired = September 1939 | Ship commissioned = December 1939 | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = Armed merchant cruiser | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = London | Ship identification = | Ship motto = | Ship nickname = | Ship honours = | Ship honors = | Ship captured = | Ship fate = Torpedoed and sunk by {{GS|U-108|1940|2}} off Iceland, 13 April 1941, in position {{coord|65|50|N|27|25|W|display=inline,title}} | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = * {{GRT|16,568}}
| Ship displacement = | Ship length = {{convert|547|ft|m|abbr=on|1}} | Ship beam = {{convert|71|ft|m|abbr=on|1}} | Ship height = | Ship draught = | Ship draft = | Ship depth = | Ship hold depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship power = | Ship propulsion = Quad expansion steam engine | Ship speed = {{convert|17|kn|lk=in}} | Ship range = | Ship endurance = | Ship test depth = | Ship boats = | Ship capacity = | Ship troops = | Ship complement = 323 (as armed cruiser) | Ship crew = | Ship time to activate = | Ship sensors = | Ship EW = | Ship armament = * 8 × {{convert|6|in|mm|abbr=on|0}} guns *2 × {{convert|3|in|mm|abbr=on|0}} guns | Ship armour = | Ship aircraft = | Ship aircraft facilities = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Rajputana was a British passenger and cargo carrying ocean liner. She was built for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company at the Harland & Wolff shipyard at Greenock on the lower River Clyde, Scotland in 1925. She was one of the P&O R-class liners from 1925 that had much of their interiors designed by Lord Inchcape's daughter Elsie Mackay.[http://www.freewebs.com/shippinglines/ships1920to1930.htm P & O Line Ships (and technical data) from 1920 to 1930] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100130222100/http://www.freewebs.com/shippinglines/ships1920to1930.htm |date=30 January 2010 }} Named after the Rajputana region of western India, she sailed on a regular route between England and British India.
She was requisitioned into the Royal Navy at the onset of World War II, outfitted in December 1939 at Yarrows, in Esquimalt, as an armed merchant cruiser and commissioned HMS Rajputana. The installation of eight six-inch guns gave her the firepower of a light cruiser without the armor protection. She was torpedoed and sunk off Iceland on 13 April 1941, after escorting a convoy across the North Atlantic.
World War II
In the Battle of the Atlantic HMS Rajputana escorted several North Atlantic convoys from Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia including BHX 42, BHX 45, BHX 49, BHX 52, BHX 54, BHX 61, BHX 64, BHX 71, BHX 83, BHX 94, BHX 101, BHX 111 and BHX 117.
On 13 April 1941, four days after parting company with convoy HX 117, she was torpedoed by {{GS|U-108|1940|2}} under Klaus Scholtz in the Denmark Strait west of Reykjavík, Iceland. She sank over an hour later with the loss of 42 men, including her last civilian captain Commander C. T. O. Richardson, and four officers.
A total of 283 of her crew were saved by the destroyer {{HMS|Legion|G74|6}} and Polish {{ORP|Piorun|G65|6}}, some of them after spending twelve hours in overcrowded lifeboats. Among the survivors was Daniel Lionel Hanington, who later become a rear admiral in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Passengers
The following are some notable passengers who sailed in the SS Rajputana.
- In 1935 Paramahansa Yogananda and his troupe arrived in Bombay after completing a trip through the holy land.
- On 12 January 1929 Lawrence of Arabia boarded the ship in Karachi, British India, arriving in Plymouth in February 1929.
- On 29 August 1931 Meher Baba departed Bombay for London on Rajputana. Onboard he met with Mahatma Gandhi who was sailing to the second Round Table Conference in London.Kalchuri, Bhau: "Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba", Manifestation, Inc. 1986. p. 1380
- On 7 September 1931 Egyptian essayist and author Mohammed Lotfy Gomaa boarded the ship in Port Said to meet with Mahatma Gandhi: the meeting lasted for eight hours.The Biography of Muhammad Loutfi Goumah – Al-Hatyaa Al-Misreyya Al-Aama Lelketab- 2000 – Part I- P. 554 {{ISBN|977-01-6651-0}}
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last1=Osborne|first1=Richard|last2=Spong|first2=Harry|last3=Grover|first3=Tom|title=Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945|year=2007|publisher=World Warship Society|location=Windsor, UK|isbn=978-0-9543310-8-5|name-list-style=amp}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20040907045827/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=15392 SS Rajputana at Clyde-built database]
- [http://www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org/gphotgallery/1915-1932/index_5.htm Mahatma Gandhi Photo Gallery 1915 & 1932]
- [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3328.html HMS Rajputana (F 35)] at uboat.net]
- [http://home6.inet.tele.dk/ron/greenland/amc_rajputana.htm Armed Merchant Cruiser]
{{April 1941 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajputana}}
Category:Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II
Category:World War II passenger ships of the United Kingdom
Category:World War II Auxiliary cruisers of the Royal Navy
Category:World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Category:Ships built on the River Clyde