SS Linz

SS Linz was an Austro-Hungarian Ocean Liner that hit a mine in the Adriatic Sea 4 miles northwest of the Cape of Rodon, while she was travelling from Fiume, Croatia to Durazzo, Albania under command of Captain Tonello Hugo.

Construction
Linz was constructed in 1909 at the Lloyd Austriaco shipyard in Trieste, Italy. She was completed in 1909 and she was named Linz and served from 1909 until her demise in 1918. She was requisitioned by the Austrian Army and used to transport troops and prisoners on Albanian routes.

The ship was 105 m long, with a beam of 13.3 m and a depth of 9.8 m. The ship was assessed at. She had a triple-expansion steam engine driving a single propeller and the engine was rated at 390 nhp (291 Kw).

Sinking
Sources provide two different dates for the sinking of Linz – 20 February 1918 and 19 March 1918 – without any explanation for the discrepancy. On one of these dates, Linz was on a voyage from Fiume in what is now Croatia, to Durazzo in what is now Albania, under the command of Captain Tonello Hugo and escorted by three Austro-Hungarian Navy ships – the Tátra-class destroyer SMS Balaton and the torpedo boats SMS Tb-74 and SMS Tb-98. The ship officially had 1,003 passengers on board, of which 413 were Italian prisoners-of-war being transported to labour camps in Albania. After a stop in the port of Zelenika, Linz hit a mine – although witnesses claimed to have seen a torpedo wake – at 00:25 hours and sank 20 minutes later, 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) northwest of Cape Rodonit in the Adriatic Sea. A total of 697 passengers and crew lost their lives, including 283 Italian prisoners-of-war and an International Red Cross nurse. Balaton and the two torpedo boats saved 306 passengers and crew. An enemy submarine unsuccessfully attacked Tb-98.

It is feared that the ship also carried several hundred non-registered passengers, mostly Austro-Hungarian soldiers returning from leave who boarded Linz illegally at Zelenika. This would mean that the number of victims was much higher than 697; some estimations go as high as 2.700 people killed.

Wreck
Austrian diver Gerald Kozmuth found the wreck of Linz in December 2000. It lies in Albanian waters at a depth of 45 meters (148 feet).

Links

 * Das größte Schiffsunglück der Österreichischen Geschichte (in German), with a testimony of a sailor on board TB-98
 * Movie on the sinking of the SS Linz and the diving expedition (in German)
 * Commemoration 100 years later (in German)
 * Pietri Grande Guerra (in Italian), with a list of Italian casualties