HMAT Wandilla
The Warilda, an identical sister ship of the Wandilla
The Wandilla was a 1912 put into service passenger ship in the Australian shipping company Adelaide Steamship Company, which was used in both World Wars as a hospital ship. The Wandilla was sold in 1921 and sank in 1942 during an allied air raid on the coast of Libya.
History
The 7785 -ton steamship Wandilla was built at the shipyard William Beardmore and Company, Dalmuir in Scotland and ran on 25 May 1912 by the stack. The 125.36 meters long and 17.28 meters wide ship was built for the Adelaide Steamship Company, which had its headquarters in Adelaide. She was equipped with two quadruple expansion steam engines, which contributed 1374 nominal horsepower and with which a top speed of 16 knots ( 29.6 km / h ) was achieved.
The Wandilla had two sister ships, which were built at the same yard: The Warilda (built in 1912), which was sunk on August 3, 1918 in the English Channel by a German U - boat and the Willochra (built in 1913), on 18 December 1929 after a collision with the Algonquin of the Clyde Mallory Line sank in New York harbor. The three built of steel ships had each a chimney, two masts, twin propellers and were fitted with passenger accommodation for 231 passengers of the First, 120 Second and 72 Third Class. The Wandilla was used for passenger traffic from Fremantle to Sydney.
During the First World War, many of the Adelaide Steamship Company ship of the Royal Australian Navy were drafted for military service and were given the additional name HMAT (His Majesty's Australian Transport ). The Wandilla as well as the Warilda were used as hospital ships and the Willochra and Grantala as a troop transport. The Wandilla was used from 1916 in the English Channel and later in the Mediterranean. In 1918 the ship was again the Adelaide Steamship Company passed, but had no more use for it.
In 1921, the Wandilla of the Bermuda & West Indies SS Co., a newly formed division of Furness, Withy & Co. bought and renamed Fort St. George. With room for 380 passengers, First Class and 50 Second Class, the ship supplied henceforth hotels in Bermuda with fresh water. For this, the cargo spaces have been replaced by water tanks. 1924 the steamer collided with the Olympic of the White Star Line and was pulled from the market for repair.
1935 the ship to the Italian shipping company Lloyd Trientino was sold and was named Cesarea. In 1938 it was renamed the Arno. In 1940, she was for the Regia Marina ( the Royal Italian Navy ) re-converted into a hospital ship. On September 10, 1942, she sank 40 miles off Tobruk on the Libyan coast after a British air raid. She was hit by a torpedo air of an aircraft of the Royal Air Force and sank in position 33 ° 14 ' N, 23 ° 23' O33.23333333333323.383333333333.