SS Oceania (1907)

Oceania was built at the Alexander Stephen & Sons shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland in 1907. She was launched on 10 September 1907, and completed that same year. The ship was 119.2 metres (391 ft 1 in) long and had a beam of 15.2 metres (49 ft 10 in). She was assessed at 5,368 GRT and had two triple expansion engines driving double screw propellers. The ship could reach a maximum speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).[2]

Oceania made her maiden voyage from Trieste to New York on 26 September 1908, and kept sailing on that line until the outbreak of the First World War.[1]

After the start of World War I, Oceania was requisitioned by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in October 1915 for service as a hospital ship. All hospital ships were distinctively painted in white with a green stripe down the side and three red crosses on each side as well, this was done to differentiate these "non-combatant" vessels from other shipping. But sometimes even these non-combatants became targets of enemy submarines. Oceania was given the prefix HS, which stands for Hospital Ship.[1]

Oceania struck a mine in the Adriatic Sea and subsequently beached herself off Cape Rodoni, Albania before being abandoned on 4 October 1918. The wreck of Oceania was thereafter torpedoed and sunk by the Austro-Hungarian torpedo boat Tb 16 on 15 October 1918, to avoid her falling into Italian hands. No lives are reported to have been lost during these events.[1]

The current condition of the wreck is unknown.[2]