Goorkha

She was built in 1897 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with a tonnage of 6287grt, a length of 430ft, a beam of 52ft 2in and a service speed of 12.5 knots.

She was part of the convoy from Capetown carrying the British Garrison, with their families, 27th August 1914, and on 20th October 1914 she was commissioned as a hospital ship with 408 beds.

HMHS Goorkha was mined on the 10th October 1917 off Malta. There were 362 survivors on board, including 17 nursing sisters. The vessel was cleared within 35 minutes and there were no casualties.

She was subsequently towed into the Malta Harbour where on 18th October she was decommissioned and returned to the company for repairs and resumption of commercial services.

She was laid up at Netley, Southampton Water in 1926 and eventually broken up by Thos. W. Ward in 1928.

Roll-of-Honour.com 2002-2015

Service in The Boer War - 1899 to 1902

Regiment	Sailed	Arrived
Army Service Corps - 22nd & 41st Company	8 July at Southampton	2 August at Southampton
Grenadier Guards - 3rd Battalion	25 October from Gibraltar	15 November at Cape Town
Lincolnshire Regiment - 2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers - 1st Battalion	4 January from Southampton	26 January at Cape Town

In August 1914 she became a troopship and took part in the famous six ship Union-Castle convoy which brought 4000 troops to Europe.

Service in WW1

Vessel

Built

Service

Tonnage

Goorkha

1897

1897 Deployed to The Intermediate Service

1913 Transferred to The Royal East African Service

1914 Requisitioned as Transport and Hospital Ship

1919 Returned to The Intermediate Service

1926 Scrapped in Italy

6287

Official Number

Ship Builder

Engine Builder

Engine Type

Screws

106917

Harland & Wolff

Belfast

Harland & Wolff

Belfast

2 x Steam 3 Cyl

508 NHP

2750 IHP

Master	From	To
F J Moseley	6/1897	5/1905
G K Gandy	1901
G W Armstrong	7/1903	2/1904
	6/1905	1/1911
J N Culverwell	12/1908	2/1909
L A Millard	6/1909	9/1909
B Burt	3/1911	1/1912
Laid up	2/1912	4/1912
J N Culverwell	5/1912	11/1913
H Strong	11/1913	6/1914
B A Bryan	6/1914	7/1914
J R Whitton	7/1914	11/1916
	5/1918	5/1919
S H Owen	3/1919

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