HMS Otranto

Otranto in Orient Line service, 1909
History
United Kingdom
Name	Otranto
Namesake	Otranto
Owner	Orient Steam Navigation Company
Operator	Orient Steam Navigation Company
Port of registry	London
Route	London – Australia
Ordered	c. 1908
Builder	Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast
Yard number	278
Laid down	c. 1908
Launched	27 March 1909
Completed	20 July 1909
Maiden voyage	1 October 1909
Identification	UK official number 124675[1] Code letters HPKD Call sign MOD
Fate	Requisitioned, 4 August 1914
United Kingdom
Name	Otranto
Acquired	4 August 1914
Commissioned	14 August 1914
Identification	Pennant number: 1914: M 60 1918: MI 87
Fate	Sank after collision, 6 October 1918
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner / AMC
Tonnage	12,124 GRT, 7,433 NRT
Length	535 ft 4 in (163.2 m)
Beam	64 ft (19.5 m)
Depth	38 ft 8 in (11.8 m)
Installed power	14,000 ihp (10,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × screw propellers 2 × quadruple-expansion engines
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Capacity	Passengers: 235 1st class 186 2nd class 696 3rd class
Armament	8 × 4.7 in (120 mm) guns

HMS Otranto was an armed merchant cruiser requisitioned by the British Admiralty when World War I began in 1914. Built before the war for the UK–Australia run as SS Otranto, she was primarily used in the war to search for German commerce raiders. She played small roles in the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 when the German East Asia Squadron destroyed the British squadron searching for it and in the Battle of the Falkland Islands the following month when a British squadron annihilated the Germans in turn.

Apart from brief refits in the UK, Canada and Australia, she remained on this duty until early 1918 when she became a troop ship. During a severe storm off the Isle of Islay in late 1918, she accidentally collided with another troop ship, HMS Kashmir (1915) and was forced ashore by the storm, killing 470 passengers, mainly American soldiers, and crewmen.