SS Lanthorn was a 2,299 GRT cargo ship built in 1889 as SS Magnus Mail, renamed in 1916 and sunk by enemy action in 1917. She was a combined steamship and two-masted sailing ship.
 Ritratto della steam ship Magnus Mail in navigazione, 1895, by Antonio Luzzo | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Builder | Short Brothers of Sunderland[1][2] |
| Cost | £22,720[3] |
| Yard number | 184[3] |
| Launched | 1889[3] |
| Completed | 1889[3] |
| Out of service | 1917[1] |
| Identification | Official Number 95287[3] |
| Fate | Sunk 21 May 1917[1][2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Cargo ship[4] |
| Tonnage | 2,299 GRT[3] |
| Length | 290 ft (88.4 m)[3] |
| Beam | 39 ft 1 in (11.91 m)[1] |
| Height | [1] |
| Draught | 21 ft 7 in (6.58 m) |
| Installed power | 202 NHP three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine[1] |
| Propulsion | Single screw |
| Sail plan | 2-masted schooner (1895) |
With Westoll Line 1889–1916
Short Brothers of Sunderland built her in 1889 for the Westoll Line, also of Sunderland.[3] Her triple expansion steam engine and two boilers were built by Thomas Richardson and Son of Hartlepool.[1] She was named after Captain Magnus Mail (1858–1916), a friend of James Westoll.[3]
Magnus Mail was one of the last tramp steamers to be built with a clipper stem.[1] A painting of her from 1895 by the Italian artist Antonio Luzzo (1855–1907) shows her under sail with her two masts under schooner rig.[5] Westoll Line ships exported coal and patent fuel to Italy and Egypt and imported grain from Black Sea ports to the United Kingdom.[4] In February 1908 Magnus Mail ran aground outside Garston Docks in Liverpool.[3]
With the Gas Light and Coke Company 1916–17
The Gas Light and Coke Company of Westminster bought Magnus Mail in 1916[1] to carry coal from North East England to Beckton Gas Works. The GLCC renamed her SS Lanthorn and placed her under the management of Stephenson Clarke and Associated Companies.[1]
On 21 May 1917 the German U-boat SM UB-41[2] shelled her from astern in the North Sea off Whitby.[1] Lanthorn was hit in her saloon amidships, twice in her port quarter and then in her stokehold and engine room, bursting her main steam pipe.[1] All her crew survived the attack, abandoned ship, and rowed away.[1] From their lifeboat they saw the U-boat come alongside her and assumed a German boarding party went aboard Lanthorn.[1] The U-boat then left the area and half an hour later Lanthorn suffered an explosion amidships, which her crew assumed was caused by charges planted by the Germans to scuttle her.[1]
Vessels from Whitby rescued the crew, found Lanthorn still afloat and took her in tow.[1] However, before she could reach safety she sank about half a mile south of the Whitby Rock buoy.[1]
References
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