RFA ''Abadol'' was a British

cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...

, converted several times to end as a tanker in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was previously known as SS ''Montezuma'' from her launch in 1899 until 1915. From February 1917, she was named RFA ''Oakleaf''. A few months later she was lost without casualties to a German torpedo attack.

Construction

She was built in Glasgow as the Elder Dempster

''Montezuma'' by Alexander Stephen and Sons in 1899.

Service history

''Montezuma'' was in New Orleans when in early February 1900 she was chartered to take mules to South Africa for the British troops in the Second Boer War. After completing eight round voyages as a Boer War Transport, she was acquired by Canadian Pacific in 1903 and was converted to carry a thousand 3rd Class passengers the following year. The ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1914 and converted to a

dummy battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type o ...

, mimicking . In 1915 she became the tanker RFA ''Abadol'' and in February 1917 she was renamed RFA ''Oakleaf''. The vessel was lost five months later when on 25 July 1917 she was torpedoed by the German

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

'' UC-41'' NW-¼W from the Butt of Lewis without any casualties.

References

Tankers of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ships built on the River Clyde World War I shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean 1899 ships Cargo liners Maritime incidents in 1917 Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I {{UK-aux-ship-stub