SS Birma

owner

*Union-Castle Line house flag.svg Union-Castle Line *East Asiatic Company.svg East Asiatic Company *Flag of Russian American Line.svg Russian American Line *Polish Navigation Company

registry

* undefined (1894–1905) *East Asiatic Company.svg Denmark (1905–1908) * undefined (1908–1914) * undefined (1914–1917) *🇷🇺 Russian Republic (1917) *Flag of Russian SFSR (1918-1937).svg Russia (1917–1921) * Danzig (1921) * undefined (1921–1924)

builder

Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

yard number

377

launched

2 October 1894

completed

1894

maiden voyage

1895

in service

1895–1924

out of service

1924

identification

SBA

fate

Broken up 1924

SS Birma was a British-built transatlantic passenger ship. She was built in 1894 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, United Kingdom, as Arundel Castle and later went through numerous ownership and name changes, including coming into the hands of the Russian American Line. In 1912, Birma was one of the ships to respond to the sinking of RMS Titanic. She was broken up in 1924 following acquisition by a German line after a liquidation sale.

Early history

Birma was built in Glasgow in 1894, originally as Arundel Castle, for Donald Currie's Castle Mail Packet Company (later renamed the Union-Castle Line). She made her maiden voyage from London to Port Natal in the Colony of Natal in 1895.

In 1905, Arundel Castle was sold to the East Asiatic Company (EAC) in Denmark and renamed Birma.[2] Birma was chartered as a troop transport ship for Russia from 1905 to 1906.[3] In late 1906 and early 1907, she carried the Danish princes Valdemar and

Titanic

In April 1912, Birma was sailing from New York to Rotterdam and was fitted with a De Forest Wireless Telegraphy system. On 14 April, the ship received CQD and SOS distress messages from Titanic. Birma's wireless operator, Joseph Cannon, quickly noted down the location, as given by Titanic, of 41°46'N. 50°14'W. He asked what had happened and Titanic responded that they were sinking after having struck an iceberg. Birma's captain, informed of the situation, relayed a message to the stricken vessel that his ship was 100 nautical miles away and expecting to arrive at the given location at approximately 6:30 am on 15 April. Initially, Birmas crew did not know that the ship in distress was Titanic, as the latter's call sign of "MGY" was so new that it was not in Birmas identification books. They were later informed by the nearby SS Frankfurt that "MGY" was Titanic.

Birma eventually reached the given co-ordinates at 7:30 am, but realised the position given by Titanic must be incorrect because of the large amount of pack ice in the vicinity; they were still 13 nautical miles from where Titanic actually sank. Birma's telegraphy room picked up messages from RMS Carpathia reporting that they had rescued Titanic survivors, and Birma offered supplies. The response from Carpathia was "shut up".[7][8] This was attributed by Cannon to be part of a Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company policy not to provide information to ships that did not use Marconi wireless sets.[7] Further attempts at communication with Carpathia resulted in similar rebuttals aside of a standard Ship's Salute from their flags. As a result, Birma returned to her planned course and on 15 April, passed what her crew believed to be the iceberg that sank Titanic and photographed it.[9] The crew held a memorial service on board and flew the flags of the United States and Russia at half-mast. Though they did not carry a British flag, the passengers made one and it was also flown at half-mast.[9]

Ships with Marconi sets started passing messages to each other that Birma had picked up five lifeboats, a claim the ship's crew denied. Birmas crew gave a signed testimony about the disaster to Britain's Daily Telegraph on 25 April;[9] this was controversial as it occurred before members of the crews of SS Californian and SS Mount Temple had given their own evidence.[10] The later British inquiry ignored Birmas testimony, based upon prior testimony from the crew of the Californian who denied hearing Birma being told to "shut up".[7] The American inquiry only briefly considered the charge, to which the general manager of Marconi in the United States responded that it was never company policy or general orders to ignore requests made by non-Marconi ships during emergencies.[7] Copies of telegrams sent by Titanic that were received by Birma relating to the sinking were later placed in The National Archives in the United Kingdom.[11]

Early history

Titanic

Later service and fate

Gallery

External links

References