Lot Essay
Despite her East African name, Uganda spent most of her service career either in Indian waters or on her owners' Australian run. One of fourteen vessels ordered by the British India Steam Navigation Company to meet the seemingly insatiable demand for freight capacity on the company's routes as the nineteenth century drew to a close, Uganda was the first of two steamers built in the yards of Alexander Stephen & Sons on the Clyde. Registered at 5,366 tons gross (3,451 net), she measured 410 feet in length with a 50½ foot beam and carried a schooner rig on each of her two masts. Two single-ended boilers provided steam at 160psi. for her builder's own triple expansion engine which in turn powered her single screw to give a cruising speed of 10 knots. Although designed primarily for cargo, she also carried limited accommodation for 11 First and 6 Second class passengers.
Launched on 8th March 1898 and completed on schedule at the contract price of 63,000, Uganda was delivered on 12th May and entered service only to be withdrawn the following year when she was chartered as a troop transport, first to South Africa where the Boer War began in 1899, and then to China where the Boxer Rebellion broke out in 1900. On the latter occasion, she embarked the men and equipment of the Punjab Infantry at Calcutta and landed them at Sinho (China) from whence they marched to relieve the besieged garrison at Peking. After her release from government service, she maintained regular peacetime sailings until the outbreak of the Great War saw her once again requisitioned as a transport. Her extensive wartime duties included service as an ambulance transport and whilst employed in this role, she was attacked by the German submarine U-35 as she approached Marseilles on 17th June 1916. The submarine was on a surface patrol when it sighted Uganda but after a sharp exchange of fire, the sixth shot from Uganda's stern gun hit home and U-35 submerged rapidly, believed sunk. Two years later, Uganda's next encounter with a submarine was not so lucky and on 27th May 1918, she was torpedoed off Majorca whilst on passage from Genoa to Gibraltar in ballast. Attempting to make port, her crew struggled for two days to keep her afloat but she sank on the 29th, fortunately without loss of life.
Launched on 8th March 1898 and completed on schedule at the contract price of 63,000, Uganda was delivered on 12th May and entered service only to be withdrawn the following year when she was chartered as a troop transport, first to South Africa where the Boer War began in 1899, and then to China where the Boxer Rebellion broke out in 1900. On the latter occasion, she embarked the men and equipment of the Punjab Infantry at Calcutta and landed them at Sinho (China) from whence they marched to relieve the besieged garrison at Peking. After her release from government service, she maintained regular peacetime sailings until the outbreak of the Great War saw her once again requisitioned as a transport. Her extensive wartime duties included service as an ambulance transport and whilst employed in this role, she was attacked by the German submarine U-35 as she approached Marseilles on 17th June 1916. The submarine was on a surface patrol when it sighted Uganda but after a sharp exchange of fire, the sixth shot from Uganda's stern gun hit home and U-35 submerged rapidly, believed sunk. Two years later, Uganda's next encounter with a submarine was not so lucky and on 27th May 1918, she was torpedoed off Majorca whilst on passage from Genoa to Gibraltar in ballast. Attempting to make port, her crew struggled for two days to keep her afloat but she sank on the 29th, fortunately without loss of life.