Genealogical Data


SS Medic

SS Medic was the second of the "Jubilee Class" of ships designed to permit White Star Line to run a regular monthly service to Australia.

Her vital statistics were
Service speed: of 13.5 knots Funnel: 1
Masts: 4
Tonnage: 11,985 GRT
Dimensions: 173.7 x 19.3 m / 565 feet x 63feet 4 inches
Engines: Quadruple Expansion by builders.
Twin Screw; 5,000 IHP; 13.5 kn.
Hull: Steel, 3 Decks, 7 holds, 21 derricks, fcsle-55 ft, bridge-107 ft, poop-57 ft.
Coal: 3,000 tons at 80 tons per day;
Cargo: 12,5000 cu. ft. Refrig for 100,000 carcasses.
Passengers: 320 Cabin Class
Crew: Not Listed

 

Time line of the life of the ‘SS Medic’

DATE EVENTS
1898, Dec 15 The ‘SS Medic’ is launched but her completion was delayed while the modifications put into the sister ship the SS Afric were incorporated
1899, Jul 6 The 'SS Medic' is delivered by Harland & Wolff, Belfast.Yard No: 323
1899, Aug 3 Maiden voyage from Liverpool to Sydney via Capetown as the White Star Line's first scheduled voyage to Australia
1899, Sep The return trip of her maiden voyage saw her carrying the Australian 1st Victorian Contingent of men and horses to South Africa for Boer War service
The State Library of South Australia holds the following
First (Mounted Rifles) Contingent D 7574(Misc)
White Star Line SS 'Medic' notepaper with the names of South Australian officers of the First (Mounted Rifles) Contingent to the Boer War in South Africa. Also included are the names of the officers in Victorian, Tasmanian and Western Australian contingents for the Boer War.
1899; 0.5 cm
1900, Jan Returns to commercial service
1900 William Murdoch joined the liner 'Medic' (12,200 tons, twin screw, rated 13.5 knots), but from sometime during 1900 he served aboard her as Second Officer on the run from Liverpool to Australia. In June 1901 he moved on to the 'Runic'
1907 ...John Fitzpatrick had come to Australia as a young man from Dublin in 1907, on the SS Medic. (The fare was £17 in those days.)...
Marshall 8nhp, Portable engine no 46407 which was ordered by Robisons of Melbourne on 18/12/06. Arrived on SS Medic 25/3/07 at cost of 225 pounds 15 shillings and 1 pence and sold to Burrows Bros of Box Hill for 260 pounds. picture of engine here
1910 Robert Pendlebury: diary of voyage from Liverpool to Australia aboard SS Medic 1910 (DX/1731) Held at National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Maritime Archives and Library
1912, Sep 10 Arrived at Albany, Western Australia with migrants from Liverpool, ENG
see Passengers on the 'Medic'
1916, Nov 1 Sailed from King George Sound for Europe - 42 days later they stopped at Egypt as Turkey had entered the war. Carried John Simpson-Kirkpatrick of Simpson and his Donkey fame
1917, Oct 27
to
1919, Mar 26
Operated under the Liner Requisition Scheme due to her large frozen meat capacity (100,000 caracases)
1919, Apr 9 SS Medic brought Nurse Katherine (Kitty) Lawrence Porter home to Australia
1928, Jun Sold to N. Bugge, Tonsberg and was rebuilt as mother ship for a whaling fleet by Grayson, Rolls & Clover Docks, Birkenhead. She was renamed Hektoria and her tonnage was listed at 13,797 GRT. During conversion by H. C. Grayson into a whale factory ship she was given a stern ramp, which was a comparatively new innovation, which enabled whales to be hauled onto the ship for flensing. Previously whales were inflated with air and flensed alongside the ship.
Worked the Southern Arctic Oceans.
1928, Sep 27 Sailed from New York with the Wilkins-Hurst Antarctic Expedition on board. They lived on board this vessel for the next 5 months.
1932 Sold to Hektoria Ltd, a London subsidiary of N. Bugge which later became Hector Whaling, and flew the Red Ensign
1942, Sept 4 Hectoria Left Liverpool as part of the convoy ON 127 for New York, US. It was listed as Norwegian, but was a British whale factory
1942, Sep 12 the Hektoria was damaged by U211 under the captancy of Karl Hause, torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic by German submarine U-608. see At that time she was in use as a British Ministry of War Transport oil tanker

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