Passenger steamship that sank after a collision south of the Isle of Wight
Mendi dressed overall
History
United Kingdom
Name
Mendi
Namesake
Mendi people of West Africa
Owner
British and African Steam Navigation Company Ltd, Liverpool
Operator
Elder Dempster & Co, Liverpool
Builder
Alexander Stephen and Sons
Yard number
404
Launched
19 June 1905
Fate
Requisitioned 1916
United Kingdom
Reclassified
Troopship
Fate
Sank after collision on 21 February 1917
General characteristics
Tonnage
4,230 GRT, 2,639 NRT
Length
370.2 ft (112.8 m)
Beam
46.2 ft (14.1 m)
Depth of hold
23.3 ft (7.1 m)
Propulsion
triple expansion steam engine
Speed
11.5 knots (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph)
SSMendi was a British 4,230 GRT passenger steamship that was built in 1905 and, as a troopship, sank after collision with great loss of life in 1917.
Alexander Stephen and Sons of Linthouse in Glasgow, Scotland launched her on 18 June 1905 for the British and African Steam Navigation Company, which appointed group company Elder Dempster & Co to manage her on their Liverpool-West Africa trades.[1][2] In 1916 during the First World War the UK Admiralty chartered her as a troopship. On 21 February 1917 a large cargo steamship, Darro, collided with her in the English Channel south of the Isle of Wight.[2]Mendi sank, killing 646 people, mostly black South African troops, as well as white Southern African officers and NCOs, and crew.[3][4] The new port admin building at the Port of Ngqura, South Africa, has been named eMendi in commemoration of the SS Mendi.
^"Steamer for West African Trade". Glasgow Herald. No. 146, 123rd year. 20 June 1905. p. 9.
^ ab"Mendi". Clyde-built Ship Database. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
^"Dancing the death drill: The sinking of the SS Mendi". BBC News. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
^"The sinking of SS Mendi: an avoidable tragedy". The National Archives blog. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
SSMendi was a British 4,230 GRT passenger steamship that was built in 1905 and, as a troopship, sank after collision with great loss of life in 1917....
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the Mendi Decoration for Bravery and was renamed as an order on 22 October 2004. The order is named after a World War I troopship, the SSMendi, which...
commemorated today - the Battle of Delville Wood and the sinking of the troopship SSMendi. Following the British declaration of war against Germany on 4 August 1914...
Center. The Mendi Memorial is a war memorial dedicated to over 600 black South African soldiers who died when the British vessel SSMendi sank after a...
Minister: Louis Botha. Chief Justice: James Rose Innes January 16 – The SSMendi, a troopship, sets sail from Cape Town to Le Havre, France, transporting...
June 2017. The five-storey, 10 000 m2 building was named eMendi in reference to the SSMendi troop ship that sank in the English Channel a hundred years...
This same event marked also the centenary of the sinking of the troopship SSMendi. The event was curated by Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza and Fr Lawrence Mduduzi...
the troopship SSMendi, on which they were being transported to France, collided with another vessel near the Isle of Wight. The Mendi disaster was one...
paid to those that lost their lives in the fateful 1917 sinking of the SSMendi. At the Empire Conference a week later the SA Legion was formalised (28...
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reoccupy the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. February 21 – British troopship SSMendi is accidentally rammed and sunk off the Isle of Wight, killing 646, mainly...
charges of spying for the Germans. February 21 Western Sinking of the SSMendi-the SSMendi was a troop ship carrying members of the South African Native Corps...
to bear arms or serve on an equal basis with whites. The sinking of the SSMendi in 1917 was a particularly tragic incident for Africans in the war, with...
art historian Barbara Lindop. His sculpture SSMendi Memorial, commemorating the sinking of troopship Mendi in 1917, was designated a national heritage...
remembrance – the Battle of Delville Wood, and the sinking of the troopship SSMendi. Two South Africans, Private William Frederick Faulds and Lance Corporal...
Basutoland raised over £40,000 for the war effort. A year later, the troopship SSMendi was sunk off the coast of the Isle of Wight, and over 100 Basuto were killed...
Now a dive site SMS Markgraf – Battleship of the German Imperial Navy SSMendi – Passenger steamship that sank after a collision south of the Isle of...
Forces Day event also honors the fallen of the tragic 1917 sinking of SSMendi, which carried South African forces into the frontlines during the First...
Antony; Penn, Robert (2007). The Wrong Kind of Snow. ISBN 978-0-340-93787-7 "SS Hungarian - 1860". On the Rocks. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. 5 October...
prestigious military medal. The Battle of Delville Wood and the sinking of the SSMendi being the greatest single incidents of loss of life. Wartime casualties...
parade of the SANDF. It is a double anniversary of both the 1917 sinking of SSMendi during the First World War, which became the country's biggest military...
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