Skip to main content

We’ve got a new website!

Collections

Search our collections for images, objects and ship records. Get started with the search box or browse what you can see.  You can also find out about our collections and how to access them.

VICTORIA (1887)

Service dates: 1887-1909

Official number: 93192

Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY

Ship type:


Passenger Liner.


Career

09.05.1887
Launched.
14.07.1887
Registered and delivered as Victoria for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. She was designed and subsidised for conversion when necessary (it never was) under the Admiralty’s Auxiliary Cruiser Agreement of 1887. First of the celebrated ‘Jubilee’ class marking the 50th anniversaries of both Queen Victoria’s reign and P&O’s first mail contract. She and her sisters Britannia, Arcadia and Oceana marked a big increase in size over previous ships. Her maiden voyage was delayed in order that she could attend the Jubilee Naval Review.
01.10.1887
Sailed from London on her maiden voyage to Bombay.
07.01.1890
Cargo capacity 4,406 cubic metres (155,612 cubic feet).
1894
Taken up for service as an Indian troopship and again used in the 1895/96 and 1896/97 seasons. Britannia was similarly employed, and this use of commercial vessels as troopships in peacetime for the first time for many years improved the transport of troops substantially.
28.04.1899
Countess Elizabeth Wolff-Metternich died on board. Her body was landed at Marseilles on 29th April.
06.1899
Deadweight 4,990 tons. Draught 8.062m (26ft 5½in).
10.1899
Cargo capacity 4,273 cubic metres (150,911 cubic feet).
06.1900
Cargo capacity 3,949 cubic metres (139,494 cubic feet).
n.d.
Insulated cargo capacity 1,604 cubic metres (56,666 cubic feet).
1904
Refitted and modernised.
08.1909
Sold for £11,520 to Fratelli Cerruti fu Alessandra, Italy, for demolition at Genoa. She was broken up alongside her sister Britannia.


Ship technical details (PDF)