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EGYPT (1897)
Service dates: 1897-1922
Official number: 105581
Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY
Ship type:
Passenger Liner.
Career
- 15.05.1897
- Launched.
- 13.08.1897
- Registered.
- 27.08.1897
- Ran trials.
- 18.09.1897
- Left the yard as Egypt for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company at a cost of £239,492. Made her maiden voyage to Bombay, but spent most of her early years in the Australian run. She also cruised in the Mediterranean. On Eastern services she developed a reputation for minor collisions and unlucky groundings. She was the third of the 5-strong India class, P&O’s last single-screw passenger liners.
- 1910
- Brought the Princess Royal home from Egypt.
- 02.08.1915
- Hired by the Admiralty as Hospital Ship No. 52 with P&O officers and crew and serving mostly in the Mediterranean.
- 01.02.1916
- Attacked by a Zeppelin when in Salonika Bay. Although not hit, she suffered blast damage to some boats and her forward funnel.
- 10.1921
- Returned to commercial service. She was one of the last two P&O ships released from Government service (Macedonia was the other), and had needed a lengthy refit.
- 19.05.1922
- Left Tilbury for Marseilles and Bombay with 44 passengers and 294 crew, and gold and silver bars and coin valued at £1,054,000.
- 20.05.1922
- Foundered in thick fog (visibility about 30 metres) off Ushant after being rammed at 1900hrs between the funnels on the port side by the French cargo steamer Seine en route La Pallice/Le Havre, whose bows were strengthened to deal with Baltic ice. Egypt heeled over after the impact and sank in about 20 minutes with the loss of 15 passengers and 71 crew. Only six boats got away, but Seine picked up the survivors and landed them at Brest. The Master of Egypt was suspended for six months, and resigned on a full pension, but the Court of Enquiry found Seine responsible. The Salvage Association at once began to consider recovery of the bullion which, owing to the depth, posed problems never before overcome.
- 1923
- Swedish salvors fail to locate the wreck.
- 1926
- French salvors fail to locate the wreck.
- 1928
- Italian company SORIMA began search with salvage vessel Artiglio.
- 30.08.1930
- Wreck discovered.
- 1931/1932
- Nine months work culminating in breaking into the strong room with explosive.
- 07.1935
- At the conclusion of operations, 98% of the gold bars, 97% of the silver ingots and 91% of the sovereigns had been recovered. The wreck had been located at a depth of 60 fathoms (about 110 metres) and the work involved the use of much new and experimental salvage equipment, including remote grabs controlled by an observer in a diving shell passing orders to the surface by telephone.