History
In 1884, the White Star Line inaugurated its service to New Zealand in order to diversify its activities. It did not go into the business alone as the service was joint with Shaw, Savill & Albion Line which had a good knowledge of the region while its partner brought significant financial resources. Thus, the service was launched with three ships of the White Star, SS Coptic (1881), SS Ionic (1883) and SS Doric (1883), and two ships of the Shaw, Savill & Albion, Arawa and Tainui.[4] This service quickly turned out to be very promising. Thus, in 1893, White Star brought a new ship to the fleet, Gothic; she was the largest ship on this route, and her first-class facilities offered comfort on the same level as that of the ships on the prestigious transatlantic route.[5]
In 1897, a slightly smaller version of Gothic (although at a higher tonnage) was ordered to join the route, captained by James 'John' Breen who had previously worked as chief officer aboard Gothic which became Delphic. Slower, she was intended for the transport of a thousand migrants as well as goods.[6] The ship, built by the Harland & Wolff shipyards, was launched on 5 January 1897.[7] Upon her delivery in May 1897 to White Star Line, it was decided to give Delphic's machinery a run in with several voyages on the Atlantic, as such her maiden voyage began on 17 June between Liverpool and New York, she made two round trips across the Atlantic before entering service on her intended route between London and Wellington on 3 October 1897.[6]
Her career on this new route was uneventful for nearly twenty years, with the exception of the very beginning of the 20th century. She was requisitioned on 31 March 1900 to transport 1,200 soldiers from London to Cape Town as part of the Second Boer War, after which she continued her service on the route to New Zealand. On 4 April 1901, she was again employed for this purpose, this time from Queenstown.[8]
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she remained on her commercial service. On 16 February 1917, Delphic narrowly avoided being torpedoed by the German submarine SMU U-60 off the south coast of Ireland; the torpedo was fired, but just missed the ship. In March 1917, she was taken over under the Liner Requisition Scheme.[6] On 16 August 1917, Delphic was torpedoed and sunk by the Imperial German Navy submarine SMU UC-72 135 mi from Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly (48.5°N, -9.16667°W), during a coal transport voyage from Cardiff, Wales, to Montevideo, Uruguay. Five people were killed in the sinking.[9][10][11]
