SS Oceania (1907)
SS Oceania was an Austro-Hungarian hospital ship that ran aground off Cape Rodoni, Albania, on 4 October 1918 after striking a mine in the Adriatic Sea.
Construction
Oceania was built at the Alexander Stephen & Sons shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland in 1907. She was launched on 10 September 1907 and completed that same year. The ship was long and had a beam of. She was assessed at and had two triple expansion engines driving double screw propellers. The ship could reach a maximum speed of.Early career
Oceania made her maiden voyage from Trieste to New York on 26 September 1908 and kept sailing on that line until the outbreak of the First World War.World War I and sinking
After the start of World War I, Oceania was requisitioned by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in October 1915 for service as a hospital ship. All hospital ships were distinctively painted in white with a green stripe down the side and three red crosses on each side as well, this was done to differentiate these "non-combatant" vessels from other shipping. But sometimes even these non-combatants became targets of enemy submarines. Oceania was given the prefix HS, which stands for Hospital Ship.Oceania struck a mine in the Adriatic Sea and subsequently beached herself off Cape Rodoni, Albania, before being abandoned on 4 October 1918. The wreck of Oceania was thereafter torpedoed and sunk by the Austro-Hungarian torpedo boat Tb 16 on 15 October 1918, to avoid her falling into Italian hands. No lives are reported to have been lost during these events.