SS Gallia

SS Gallia was a transatlantic ocean liner of the Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique. She was built in 1913. Gallia was the Roman name for the province of Gaul.

Gallia in 1913
History
France
Name: Gallia
Namesake: Gallia
Owner: Cie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique
Operator: Cie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique
Route: Bordeaux – Buenos Aires
Builder: Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée
Yard number: 1056
Completed: 1913
Fate: sunk 4 October 1916
General characteristics
Type: ocean liner
Tonnage: 14,966 GRT
Length: 174.7 m (573 ft)
Beam: 19.1 m (63 ft)
Depth: 11.2 m (37 ft)
Installed power: 26,000 hp
Propulsion:
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h)
Capacity: 6,000 troops
Armament:
Notes: sister ships: Lutetia, Massilia

In the First World War Gallia was converted into first an armed merchant cruiser and then a troop ship. In 1916 she was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea with great loss of life.

Building and peacetime service
Salon de musique aboard Gallia

The Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée built Gallia at La Seyne-sur-Mer as one of a set of three liners for Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique's mail and passenger service between France and South America. The same shipyard also built her sister ship Massilia. Chantiers de l'Atlantique built Lutetia, the other member of the trio.

Gallia sailed between Bordeaux and Rio de Janeiro in 10 days, and between Bordeaux and Buenos Aires in 13 days.

First World War

When the First World War broke out Gallia was converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Her primary armament was five 140 mm (5.5 in) guns and her secondary armament was four 47 mm guns.[1]

In 1915 Gallia was refitted as a troopship.

On 3 October 1916 Gallia left Toulon unescorted for Thessaloniki in Greece carrying 1,650 French soldiers, 350 Serbian soldiers and 350 crew and a cargo of artillery and ammunition. The next day the German submarine SM U-35, commanded by Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, torpedoed her southwest of Sardinia.[2]

Ammunition aboard Gallia exploded and the ship sank in 15 minutes.[2] Because of the rapid sinking, panic broke out on board resulting in lifeboats capsizing, and thousands of soldiers jumping overboard. The ship's wireless was disabled by the explosions, preventing the sending of a distress signal. The next day the French cruiser Châteaurenault rescued survivors.

About 600 people were killed in the sinking. A list of missing personnel was published on 31 October 1917 by the Tribunal Civil of Toulon. It gave the names of 44 sailors and 553 soldiers. Several individual soldiers known by their family members to have died are not on the list. The Serbian soldiers were also not included.

The sinking was one of the greatest losses of life in a maritime disaster involving a single French ship.

See also

References
  1. Lettens, Jan; Miller, Jon. "Gallia (+1916)". Wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  2. Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Gallia". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net.

Bibliography
  • Hillion, Daniel (1992). Paquebots (in French). Rennes: Editions Ouest-France. p. 24. ISBN 978-2737314339.
  • Du Manoir, J. Rapport de l'Enseigne de vaisseau Le Courtois du Manoir (in French). Archives de la Marine.

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