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DOMALA (1921)
Service dates: 1921-1940
Official number: 146266
Shipping lines: BRITISH INDIA STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY LTD.
Ship type:
Passenger/Cargo Ship.
Career
- 23.12.1920
- Launched as Magvana for the British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd.
- 24.11.1921
- Ran trials.
- 12.1921
- Delivered. Because she was diesel driven, the first major British passenger vessel so propelled, a new ‘D’ for ‘diesel’ class was introduced and she emerged as Domala. Her propulsion saved 40 stokers.
- 23.05.1922
- Rammed aft by the Pallas as she moved up the Scheldt to Antwerp. She reached her berth safely but the icebreaker bow of the Pallas had cut into the stern down to below the waterline and she did not return to service until the end of the year.
- 1928
- Re-measured. Now 111 one-class passengers.
- 1934
- Re-measured. Now 140 one-class passengers.
- 07.09.1937
- Had a breakdown of her steering machinery off the Sunk Lightvessel but was able to reach the Royal Albert Dock the same day and to sail on time four days later.
- 17.02.1940
- Requisitioned for the Liner Division.
- 02.03.1940
- Bombed by a Heinkel 111 and set on fire in the English Channel en route from Antwerp to Southampton with Indian seamen released by the Germans. Out of 143 passengers and 148 crew, 108 lives were lost. She was the first air attack by German aircraft on English Channel shipping. The Jonge Willem picked up 50 men along with a Royal Navy destroyer and some boasts from the shore. Domala was towed, on fire, into Cowes Roads and was condemned. Then acquired by the Ministry of War Transport and rebuilt as Empire Attendant (Andrew Weir & Co Ltd, managers).
- 15.07.1942
- Torpedoed by U582 off Rio de Oro, West Africa (23°48’N-21°51’W) and lost her entire crew of 59.