SS Mahratta was a Brocklebank Line steamship launched in 1917. She ran aground in the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 on the Goodwin Sands

Goodwin Sands

The Goodwin Sands is a 10-mile-long sand bank in the English Channel, lying six miles east off Deal in Kent, England. The Brake Bank lying shorewards is part of the same geological unit. As the shoals lie close to major shipping channels, more than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked...

 in October 1939. She was the second and final Brocklebank Line ship with this name. The first Mahratta

SS Mahratta (1892)

SS Mahratta was a steamship owned by Brocklebank Line which was launched in 1891 and ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in 1909. One member of the crew committed suicide.-History:...

 suffered a similar fate in 1909. After Mahratta broke up, the ship was found to be resting on top of the first Mahratta.

History

SS Mahratta was launched on the 20 October 1917. On 6 April 1936, SS Matheran lost her propellor off Port Sudan

Port Sudan

Port Sudan is the capital of Red Sea State, Sudan; it has 489,725 residents . Located on the Red Sea, it is the Republic of Sudan's main port city.-History:...

. It was decided that Mahratta would tow Matheran the 718 nautical miles (1,329.7 km) to Suez

Suez

Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...

 where another ship would tow Matheran to Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 for repairs. Despite Matheran being a bigger ship than Mahratta, the tow was completed at an average speed of 7.32 knots (14.3 km/h).

Shipwreck

On 9 October 1939, Mahratta was inbound to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 from Calcutta when she ran aground on the Goodwins. Mahratta had originally been bound for Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 but received new orders at Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 to sail to London. Mahratta left Gibraltar as part of Convoy HG 1 on 26 September 1939. In blackout conditions she ran aground on Fork Spit, less than a mile away from where the first Mahratta had run aground. The Deal

Deal, Kent

Deal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...

 hoveller Lady Haig was given charge of the salvage operations. A tug attempted to move Mahratta into deeper water the next day, but the plates on her port side buckled and by nightfall Mahratta had broken in two. The crew of Mahratta were transferred to the steamer Challenge in four trips. On the third trip, a lifeboat full of luggage salvaged from Mahratta was taken in tow, but a large wave almost capsized Lady Haig and the lifeboat was cast adrift after the ten crew from Mahratta on it were rescued. They were landed at Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

.

Pride of Canterbury ferry incident

On 31 January 2008, the roll on roll off passenger ferry Pride of Canterbury

Pride of Canterbury

MS Pride of Canterbury is a cross-channel ferry operated by P&O Ferries between Dover and Calais.-History:MS Pride of Canterbury was the second of four 'European Class' freight ferries ordered for P&O European Ferries' Dover-Zeebrugge route. Between 1992 and 2002 she sailed between Dover and...

 operated by P&O Ferries

P&O Ferries

P&O Ferries is the current name for the amalgamation of a range of ferry services that operated from the United Kingdom to Ireland and Continental Europe...

 struck the wreck of Mahratta while manoeuvering in severe weather into a holding position in The Downs

The Downs

The Downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge...

. The ferry suffered extensive damage to her port propeller and had to be assisted to berth in Dover. It is not clear whether the wreck site named in the MAIB

Marine Accident Investigation Branch

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch established in 1989 following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster is a branch of the United Kingdom Department for Transport which can investigate any accident occurring in UK waters, regardless of the nationality of the vessel involved, and accidents...

report is that of the first SS Mahratta or the later vessel.

External links

• Lloyds Register entry