HMS Otranto

HMS Otranto was a First World War Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser. She was originally the SS Otranto, built in 1909 by the Belfast yard of Workman Clark for the Orient Steam Navigation Company.

Passenger ship
It took two attempts – on 23 March and again on 27 March 1909 – to launch Otranto. She was delivered to her owners on 30 June 1909. Although she was intended for the London – Australia run as a passenger and mail carrier, she spent the summer of 1909 cruising in Northern European waters. She left London on her maiden voyage to Australia on 1 October 1909. Otranto was present at King George V's Coronation Naval Review on 26 June 1911.

Auxiliary cruiser
One week after Great Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914 the Otranto was requisitioned by the Admiralty for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser, having six 4.6 in guns fitted. She was sent to the South Atlantic to join Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock's West Indies squadron. This squadron was subsequently diverted to the South-East Pacific to intercept the German Far East squadron under Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee which was attempting to make for Germany after the loss of its base in Tsingtao, China, to a joint Japanese-British force. It was Otranto which spotted the German squadron on 1 November 1914 off the Chilean coast. The subsequent battle, known as the Battle of Coronel, was a victory for the German squadron, but Otranto managed to escape along with the light cruiser HMS Glasgow (1909).

Following the battle, Otranto was ordered to the Falkland Islands to act as a guard ship, but returned to the UK in March 1915 after her ex-Merchant Navy crew threatened to mutiny. By May 1915, Otranto was in the Pacific patrolling the West Coast of America. She carried out four refits during her time in the Pacific: in Sydney, Australia during February 1916, in Esquimault, British Columbia, Canada in October 1916, again in Esquimault in October 1917, and finally in Sydney during April 1918. Otranto was then ordered back to Britain, and in June 1918 she became an armed troopship employed in ferrying American "doughboys" to the Western Front in Europe.

Sinking
It was during one such operation on 6 October 1918 that she collided with HMS Kashmir, another liner turned troopship, in poor visibility in the rough seas between the North East coast of Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland. She was holed on the port side forward and, in the heavy swell, began to list. The stricken ship then hit rocks and became grounded. With the heavy seas pounding her continually against the rocks the ship eventually broke up and sank with the loss of 431 lives (351 American troops and 80 British crew members). A number of Americans and crew were saved by a convoy escort, HMS Mounsey, and were taken to Belfast, Ireland. Many of the survivors were hospitalised there until eventual transfer to England. Probably none of the survivors saw action in the Great War as it ended soon afterwards on 11 November 1918. Many of the dead were buried in the Belfast City Cemetery. The American servicemen were exhumed and repatriated to the United States in 1920.

Replacement
A second Otranto was built by the Orient Line, c.1927. She served in the Second World War as a troopship, later being converted to one-class operation and used on the Australia run until being scrapped, c.1957. Spike Milligan in his War Memoires (Hitler - My part in his Downfall) said that this was the ship that carried him and his Artillery Regiment from Liverpool to Tangiers.