HMS Mantua

HMS Mantua was a 20th-century ocean liner and armed merchant cruiser. Launched in 1909 as a passenger ship, Mantua was outfitted as an armed merchant cruiser in 1914 and served with the Royal Navy during World War I.[1] On a voyage to Freetown in 1918, the passengers and crew of Mantua inadvertently spread the 1918 flu pandemic to Africa.[2][3][4]

HMS Mantua under way
History
United Kingdom
Name: Mantua
Owner: Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company
Builder: Caird & Company
Yard number: 316
Launched: 10 February 1909
Completed: 15 April 1909
In service: 1914
Out of service: 1920
Refit: 1914
Fate: Scrapped in 1935
General characteristics
Type: Armed merchant cruiser
Tonnage: 10,885 grt
Length: 540 feet (165 metres)
Beam: 61.3 feet
Depth: 24.6 feet
Propulsion:

2 x 4 cylinder screws

2 sails
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h)
Crew: 364
Armament:

8 x 4.7 inch (120 mm) guns

2x 6 pounder (57 mm) guns

History

Mantua was launched as a commercial merchant liner in 1909 for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).[5] In her civilian career, the ship was used to transport passengers and mail to India and China. Following the outbreak of the First World War, Mantua was commissioned into the Royal Navy in August 1914 as HMS Mantua. She was attached to the 10th Cruiser Squadron and was tasked with patrolling the waters between Britain and Iceland. In October 1916 she was transferred into the 9th Cruiser Squadron. During one of her patrols in the North Sea, the ship reportedly hit a submerged object, an occurrence that has led to some sources suspecting that Mantua caused the loss of the German merchant submarine Bremen, an event for which Mantua did not take credit.[6] In 1918 Mantua sailed to Freetown, Sierra Leone, arriving on 15 August. As some of her passengers and crew were ill with influenza, HMS Mantua is considered one of the first ships to have spread the ongoing pandemic to the African continent.[2][3]

Postwar service

The ship returned to civilian service in 1920, again filling the role of a passenger ship. Mantua was scrapped in Shanghai in 1935.[7]

References
  1. "HMS Mantua, armed merchant cruiser – British warships of World War 1". www.naval-history.net. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  2. Barry, John M. (2005). The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. Penguin. p. 182. ISBN 9780143036494.
  3. Goldsmith, Connie (2010-08-01). Influenza. Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 9780761363767.
  4. Crosby, Alfred W. (2003-07-21). America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521541756.
  5. "Screw Steamer MANTUA built by Caird & Company in 1909 for Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Greenock, Passenger / Cargo". www.clydeships.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  7. The National Archives. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-09.

Bibliography
  • Osborne, Richard; Spong, Harry & Grover, Tom (2007). Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945. Windsor, UK: World Warship Society. ISBN 978-0-9543310-8-5.
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