SS Merion
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SS ''Merion'' was an
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
built in 1902 for the
American Line The American Line was a shipping company founded in 1871 and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It began as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, although the railroad got out of the shipping business soon after founding the company. In 1902, it ...
, a subsidiary line of the
International Mercantile Marine The International Mercantile Marine Company, originally the International Navigation Company, was a trust formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt by J.P. Morgan to monopolize the shipping trade. IMM was founded by shipping magnates ...
(IMM). She also sailed for the
Red Star Line The Red Star Line was a shipping line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belgiu ...
and the
Dominion Line The Dominion Line was a trans-atlantic passenger line founded in 1870 as the ''Liverpool & Mississippi Steamship Co.'', with the official name being changed in 1872 to the ''Mississippi & Dominion Steamship Co Ltd.'' The firm was amalgamated in ...
—both subsidiary lines of IMM—during her passenger career. After the outbreak of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
she was bought by the
British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...
and converted to serve as a decoy resembling the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
battlecruiser . In May 1915, while posing as ''Tiger'' in the
Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...
, ''Merion'' was sunk by the German submarine .


Career

''Merion'' was built by
John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and the ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its ...
of
Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
for the
American Line The American Line was a shipping company founded in 1871 and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It began as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, although the railroad got out of the shipping business soon after founding the company. In 1902, it ...
, a subsidiary of the
International Navigation Company The International Navigation Company (INC) was a Philadelphia-based holding company owning 26 ships totaling 181,000 tons and carried more passengers than either Cunard or White Star, when the company was reorganized as International Mercantile ...
, and launched on 26 November 1901. The ship was long (
between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the stern ...
) and
abeam This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th t ...
. She had a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 11,621. The ship had twin
screw propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
s powered by twin
triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...
s, and, at top speed, could move . As built, ''Merion'' had accommodations for 150 second- and 1,700 third-class passengers. ''Merion'' was named after a suburb of Philadelphia, PA, as was her sister ship, the ''
SS Haverford SS ''Haverford'' was an American transatlantic liner commissioned in 1901 for the American Line on the route from Southampton to New York, then quickly on the route from Liverpool to Boston and Philadelphia. During her early years, this ship, ma ...
''. The towns were home to
Clement Griscom Clement Acton Griscom (March 15, 1841 – November 10, 1912) was an American shipping magnate and financier. Griscom was "without question, the key figure in American transatlantic shipping" by 1900. Biography Griscom was born in 1841 to a long ...
, Director of the International Navigation Company. Upon completion, the ship was
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
ed to the
Dominion Line The Dominion Line was a trans-atlantic passenger line founded in 1870 as the ''Liverpool & Mississippi Steamship Co.'', with the official name being changed in 1872 to the ''Mississippi & Dominion Steamship Co Ltd.'' The firm was amalgamated in ...
, a subsidiary line of
International Mercantile Marine The International Mercantile Marine Company, originally the International Navigation Company, was a trust formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt by J.P. Morgan to monopolize the shipping trade. IMM was founded by shipping magnates ...
(IMM) with which International Navigation had merged in 1902. The liner sailed for Dominion on her maiden voyage on 8 March 1902 from
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
to
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. After completing eleven voyages on that route, ''Merion'' was returned to the American Line in March 1903. The following month she began sailing on the Liverpool–
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
route on which she sailed most of the rest of her passenger career. She was briefly chartered to the
Red Star Line The Red Star Line was a shipping line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belgiu ...
in 1907 for one
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
voyage. The liner had several mishaps during her passenger career. On 2 March 1903, an article in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' reported that ''Merion'' had run aground shortly after leaving Queenstown while en route to Liverpool from Boston. The ship was freed from her perch near Chicago Knoll by the rising tide, but when she got underway again became stuck fast in almost the same spot. At press time, two
British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...
tugs had been dispatched to free the ship. Almost exactly a year later, ''Merion'' collided with the steamer ''Clan Grant'' off Tuskar Rock on 30 March 1904 and was damaged. On 24 December 1912, ''Merion'' collided with a tanker off the
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
coast and sustained damage which included two flooded compartments. The ship was beached below Cross Ledge, but was refloated and made way under her own power back to Philadelphia, after discharging her cargo and passengers. After the outbreak of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in Europe, ''Merion'' was equipped with four guns for defensive purposes. ''Merion'' was the subject of a protest by the German Consul at Philadelphia, when she docked at that port equipped with those guns, counter to rules regarding armed ships in neutral ports. The still-neutral United States required that the guns be removed before they would allow ''Merion'' to sail;The United States did not enter World War I until April 1917. her guns were stowed belowdecks when she departed Philadelphia on 5 September 1914. ''Merion''s final voyage on the Liverpool–Philadelphia route began on 31 October, after which she was sold to the British Admiralty. ''Merion'' was employed as part of a program that disguised ocean liners to resemble
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
capital ships The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet. Strategic im ...
. ''Merion'' was patterned after the British battlecruiser and deployed in the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
.The real was a part of the British
Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the ...
and not in the Mediterranean. See: .
For this duty, the liner was equipped with canvas-and-wood replicas of ''Tiger''s guns, and her crew had to stow them whenever approached by neutral ships. The ship was also overloaded with ballast to make the ship ride lower in the water to match the profile of the real ''Tiger''. On 29 May 1915, the German submarine , apparently tempted by the prospect of sinking a British battlecruiser, allowed five loaded transports to sail past before launching a torpedo attack on ''Merion''. One torpedo from ''UB-8'' struck the liner and exploded, sending some of the "cement and stones" used as ballast into the air. Some of ''Merion''s crew that were knocked overboard by the explosion were able to float ashore on nearby Strati Island on remnants of the liner's false guns. Despite being severely overloaded, ''Merion'' did not immediately sink, remaining afloat more than 24 hours before finally succumbing to the attack on 31 May. Four crew were killed during the. ''Merion''s sinking.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merion Ocean liners Ships built on the River Clyde Passenger ships of the United Kingdom World War I passenger ships of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I World War I shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea 1901 ships Maritime incidents in 1915 Ships sunk with no fatalities