Figure 1: S.S. Erinpura
as she looked while in service with the British-India Steam Navigation Company.
Erinpura was completed in 1911 and was one of a class of seven fast
passenger and cargo steamers built mainly for use on the
Calcutta-Rangoon-Singapore Straits service. This magnificent illustration can
be found in Laurence Dunn’s excellent book, Merchant Ships of the World:
1910-1929, printed by Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1973. Click
on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2:
S.S. Erinpura while in service as a passenger cargo liner with
the British India Steam Navigation Company, exact date and location unknown. Click
on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3:
S.S. Erinpura while in service as a passenger cargo liner with
the British-India Steam Navigation Company, exact date and location unknown. Click
on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: S.S. Erinpura
after she was converted into Hospital Ship (HS) Erinpura in August 1915
during World War I. Erinpura served as a hospital ship until 1919. Photograph
courtesy of the British India Steam Navigation Company. Click on photograph for
larger image.
Figure 5:
An amazing photograph of S.S. Erinpura without her bow. While
steaming from Aden, Yemen, to Port Said, Egypt, Erinpura encountered a
major sandstorm on 15 June 1919. The ship ran aground on Mushejera Reef off the
Hanish Islands in the Red Sea. All efforts to pull Erinpura off the reef
failed and she remained stranded there for over a year. It was then decided by
her owners to salvage at least part of the ship, so Erinpura was cut in
half and her stern section was towed to Bombay, India, where a new forward
section was fitted onto what was left of the ship. Erinpura then returned
to service with the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1923, after
repairs were completed. Photograph courtesy of the British India Steam
Navigation Company. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6:
Illustration of S.S. Erinpura as she looked while in service as a
passenger/cargo liner with the British-India Steam Navigation Company. This
illustration can be found on page 226 of the book Liners, Tankers, &
Merchant Ships, by Robert Jackson, Barnes & Noble Inc., 2002. Click
on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7:
A memorial to the 140 Palestinian Jewish soldiers serving in the 462nd
Transport Company of the British Army who were killed when S.S. Erinpura
was sunk on 1 May 1943. Erinpura was part of a large British convoy
headed for the island of Malta and sank in just four minutes after being hit by
a German bomber 30 miles north of Benghazi, Libya. There was a very heavy loss
of life when Erinpura went down, and among the dead were the 140 British
Palestinian Jewish soldiers. They were known as “British Palestinian” soldiers
because the country of Israel did not exist in 1943. This memorial is located
at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after a village in India, the 5,128 gross-ton steamship S.S. Erinpura
was built for the British India Steam Navigation Company and was constructed by
William Denny and Brothers at Dumbarton, England. Erinpura was completed
on 6 December 1911 and was one of a class of seven fast passenger cargo steamers
built for use on the Calcutta, India-Rangoon, Burma-Singapore trade route that
was popular at that time. The British India Steam Navigation Company (which was
known primarily as “the B.I.”) owned well over 100 steamers and was one of the
most successful, profitable, and enduring companies in the history of British
India. Ships like Erinpura played a vital role in sustaining trade and
communications between various parts of Britain’s vast empire, and the route
between Calcutta and Rangoon was one of the oldest maintained by Great Britain,
having been established in 1856.
Erinpura was
approximately 411 feet long and 52 feet wide, had a top speed of 16.7 knots,
and had a crew of 110 officers and men. The ship could carry roughly 51 first-class
passengers, 39 second-class passengers, and 659 “native-deck passengers,”
although this number was dramatically increased to 2,359 people for shorter
trips. Erinpura carried a total of 4,750 tons, or deadweight tons, of
cargo and had the distinction of being the first British India ship fitted with
a radio.
Shortly after England entered World War I in August 1914, Erinpura
was used by the British Admiralty as a troopship, carrying soldiers from
Karachi (at that time located in India; today it is located in Pakistan) to
Marseilles, France. On 24 December 1914, the ship ran aground while steaming up
a river to Abadan, Iran. After running her engines full in reverse, Erinpura
managed to release herself from the riverbank but damaged her rudder in the
process. The ship was able to sail to Bombay, India, for repairs.
In August 1915, Erinpura was converted into a hospital ship for
the Indian Expeditionary Force and was equipped with 475 beds for wounded
troops as well as a medical staff of 104 officers, nurses, and men. The ship
steamed mainly between Basra, Iraq, and Bombay. From November 1917 to June 1919,
Erinpura was used primarily as an ambulance transport along that same
route.
Then on 15 June 1919, while steaming from Aden, Yemen, to Port Said,
Egypt, Erinpura sailed into a major sandstorm. The ship ran aground on
Mushejera Reef off the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea. Erinpura’s
passengers and troops were transferred to the cruiser HMS Topaze, which
came to the passenger liner’s assistance. But all efforts to pull Erinpura
off the reef failed. She remained stranded there for more than a year. The
ship’s owners decided to salvage at least part of Erinpura, so the
steamer was cut in half and her stern section was towed to Bombay. A new bow
section was built by the original shipbuilders, William Denny and Brothers, and
transported to Bombay where it was fitted onto what was left of the ship. The
old bow remained stranded on the reef. Erinpura returned to service with
the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1923, after repairs were
completed.
For the next 15 years, Erinpura continued her normal peacetime
duties as a passenger cargo liner based in India. But with World War II drawing
near, the British Admiralty called Erinpura up for service during the
Munich crisis of 1938. The ship was officially requisitioned for use in the
“Liner Division” in March of 1940 and in 1941 Erinpura rescued a large
number of refugees from Singapore just before that major island seaport fell to
the Japanese. Shortly after that, Erinpura was used as a troop transport
in the Mediterranean.
In late April 1943, Erinpura was the commodore’s ship (or
civilian flagship) in a British convoy headed for the besieged island of Malta.
In the convoy were three other British India ships (S.S. Karoa, S.S. Egra,
and S.S. Rohna) as well as 20 other merchant ships escorted by 11
warships. The convoy was attacked 30 miles north of Benghazi, Libya, on 1 May
1943 by waves of torpedo-carrying aircraft with high-level bombers flying above
them. One of the high-level German bombers scored a direct hit on Erinpura,
causing major damage in one of her holds. Water poured into the old steamer and
she sank in only four minutes.
Erinpura was packed
with soldiers bound for Malta. Sadly, when the attack began, all personnel not
directly involved in firing the ship’s few antiaircraft guns were ordered to go
below decks for their own “safety.” But with the troop transport sinking in
only four minutes, few of these men were able to get on deck to abandon ship.
As a result, there was an appalling loss of life when Erinpura went
down. Of the roughly 1,215 men on board the ship, two junior engineers, 54
Indian seamen, three gunners, 600 Basuto Pioneer Troops from South Africa, and
140 Palestinian Jewish soldiers serving in the 462nd transport
company of the British Army were lost. Erinpura went down bow first, and
gunner Albert Whittle maintained a steady rate of fire with his antiaircraft
gun as the ship’s stern rose into the air and then slipped beneath the waves.
Joseph Stalin once said that, “When one man dies it is a tragedy, when
thousands die it’s statistics.” The major loss of life on board Erinpura
was a tragedy in a war that was filled with such tragedies. It seems, though,
that most of the world has become accustomed to such losses, treating them as
“statistics” rather than as dead human beings.
Not so in Israel. When Erinpura went down, among the dead were
the 140 British Palestinian Jewish soldiers. They were known as “British
Palestinian” soldiers because the country of Israel did not exist in 1943. But
in the current state of Israel, a memorial was created on Mount Herzl in
Jerusalem for the 140 Jewish soldiers who drowned after Erinpura sank. The
monument is shaped like a ship and it contains a central pool. On the bottom of
the pool are inscribed the names of the dead soldiers. Above the pool is a
turret adorned with the Hebrew text of Psalms 68:22, which roughly translated
states that, “The Lord said: I will bring them from Bashan, I will bring them
back from the depths of the sea.” A memorial ceremony is held every year on Yom
HaShoah, which is the Holocaust
and Heroism Remembrance Day in Israel.
It is a pity there are not more memorials like this one around the world. Real
human beings died on that ship and they should not be remembered simply as “statistics.”
