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Summary

Remains of RMS Medina, a cargo vessel sunk by a German submarine while en route India to London, via Plymouth.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Tide Project: 24/03/2020

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BATTLEFIELD WRECKAGE (Early 20th Century to World War I - 1912 AD (Between) to 1917 AD (Between))

Full description

National Monument Record, 1992, Long Maritime Listing: 832166 (National Monuments Record Database). SDV354646.

Remains of Medina, cargo vessel. The vessel was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine while en route India to London, via Plymouth. This vessel was used as the Royal Yacht during the world tour of 1912.

The wreck was dived on in 1954 and proved to be the Medina, a merchant vessel of about 6000 tons, lies 350 yards eastwards.

In 1982 a report of the wreck states it is still fairly intact and standing high, sunk by the stern into the seabed. Scrap located either side of the wreck resulting from previous salvage work. Metal of hull now very thin.

2001-2020, The Wreck Site Online Database (Website). SDV363841.

Medina SS; Passenger cargo ship; 12.358 ton, 550 x 63 ft, 1.164 hp quadruple expansion engines; British P & O liner, built in 1911 by Caird & Company Greenock; Used as royal yacht for Delhi celebrations of coronation of King George V. Armed in 1914. Cargo: general, including copper ingots. Sunk: 28 April, 1917 by torpedo in starboard side from UB-31, off Start Point while en route from India for London. Six engine-room crew killed, 411 passengers and crew saved.

Wreck is upright, 15° list to port. Reasonably intact despite salvage of copper and passengers' baggage from forward holds. The stern has the most damage and is gradually sinking into the seabed. The bulkheads are collapsing and the compartments folding down. See website for further details and images.

Maritime Archaeology Trust, 2018, Maritime Archaeology Trust: Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War (Website). SDV363802.

Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War is a Heritage Lottery Funded project which is dedicated to raising the profile of a currently under-represented aspect of the First World War. While attention is often focused on the Western Front and major naval battles like Jutland, historic remains from the war lie, largely forgotten, in and around our seas, rivers and estuaries.

Medina was chosen as one of the Forgotten Wrecks case study sites because of having served initially as the Royal Yacht, the ship was regarded as one of the best passenger liners of its time, designed for regular return voyages providing a mail and passenger and general cargo business between London, India and Australia. Its remains, which lie off the Devon coast at over 60m depth are accessible, visited by divers, as well as having been salvaged for its cargo over the years. The archive of information on recovered artefacts from the site provide a fascinating collection related to late colonial India in addition to general cargoes during the First World War.

Launched on 14 March 1911 by Lady Alice Shaw-Stewart, the daughter of the late Marquis of Bath and wife of Sir Hugh Shaw-Stewart, a local dignitary, it was registered as Medina on 3 September 1911. The Medina (Official Number: 131849) was built by Caird & Company of Greenock in their Westburn yard, no 317.

During the First World War, the Medina was not requisitioned by the Admiralty and continued with the service between London and Australia, with ports of call broadly similar to pre-war. However, the ship was armed.

Maiden voyage – commissioned as HMS Medina on 10 September 1911, the ship set sail on 11 November 1911 for Bombay as the Royal Yacht with the Royal party aboard. Medina, escorted by the cruisers HMS Argyll, Natal, Cochrane and Defence, arrived at Bombay on 2 December 1911 and, with the Delhi Durbar celebrations complete, departed Bombay with the Royal party on 10 January 1912 arriving back at Portsmouth on 5 February 1912. During this voyage, the Master for the Royal Voyage was Rear-Admiral Sir Colin Keppel. Admiral George Tomlin was the commander of HMS Medina on the Royal Voyage, he navigated on the trip to and from India, for which he received the M.V.O.

The Medina played a highly significant role as the Royal Yacht which transported King George V and Queen Mary for the visit to India for the Delhi Durbar. This impacted on the final fitting and finishes installed on the ship. Further refitting was undertaken prior to the ship entering service carrying passengers, mail and cargo between Britain, India and Australia. During these voyages the ship called at many ports in a range of countries including: Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Fremantle, Colombo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Bombay, Suez, Port Said, Malta, Marseilles, Gibraltar, Plymouth, London, Littleton, Gisborne and Tangiers. The Medina played an important role in this late ‘colonial’ period which is reflected by those that travelled onboard and particularly within the cargo on its final voyage which includes the personal collection of Lord Carmichael which was amassed during his time as Viceroy of India. The research potential of this collection is yet to be fully assessed.

During the First World War, the Medina was not requisitioned by the Admiralty and continued with the service between London and Australia, with ports of call broadly similar to pre-war. However, the ship was armed.

Medina was attacked by torpedo at 5.50 pm on 28 April 1917 and sunk by Oberleutnant Bieber's UB-31. a type UBII German submarine. It was commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Thomas Bieber, whose decorations were Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. The torpedo hit the starboard side to the rear of the engine room, disabling the ship. Fortunately, the Medina had put most of the passengers ashore in Plymouth, and in less than an hour the ship was abandoned. Six engine room crew were killed in the initial explosion, and they were the only casualties. Of these six, five were part of the Indian Merchant Service and are commemorated on the Memorial in Mumbai, the sixth was the Fourth Engineer Officer who is recognised on the Tower Hill Memorial in London. All survivors were towed in Medina’s lifeboats to Dartmouth and Brixham

The loss of the Medina was a personal blow to Lord Carmichael who lost many of his possessions, however, the Board of Trade War Risk Insurance records demonstrates how much cargo the ship was carrying at the time and the loss of valuable food stuffs, raw materials and manufactured goods when the country was relying on imports. Butter and eggs feature heavily in the cargo along with tea and dried fruit, commodities that would have been in increasingly short supply. The total value of the insurance claims paid out was £262,319, which in 2017 prices would be around £17.3 million.

The wreck of the Medina lies off the South Devon coast, approximately four miles off Start Point (Figure 3). The remains lie at a maximum depth of around 68m. Medina sits almost upright on the seabed orientated close to north - south and listing around 10-15 degrees to port. The depth to the ship’s main deck is around 55m, with some of the top decks shallower at around 38m. The wreck is dived, although its depth means it is an advanced dive, there are some photographs available online from diver reports.

In 1982 it is reported that the wreck is still fairly intact, sunk by the stern into the seabed. There is scrap lying either side of the wreck from previous salvage work and the metal of the hull is now very thin. A 1995 diver report available records a dive to the site where visibility was good. They were able to pass from the superstructure to the bottom of the hold, they remarked that deck planking was in-situ and it was possible to move along the walkway between decks.

While the Forgotten Wrecks project had a non-recovery policy, where possible, the project aimed to ‘virtually reunite’ artefacts historically recovered from the Forgotten Wrecks. One of the reasons that the Medina was chosen as a case study was the wealth of artefacts that have been recovered from the site through salvage. Although these are largely in private ownership, documentation and photographs particularly for the Sotheby’s auction, made it possible to review recoveries in detail. Some artefacts from the wreck are on display in museums and exhibitions, these include Salcombe Maritime Museum, where artefacts were recorded as part of the Project, and the Charlestown Shipwreck and Heritage Centre. The sections below outline the basic details of reported artefacts, there is some possibility that objects included as Receiver of Wreck (RoW) reports are also those held in Museum collections, but at present it is not possible to cross reference these.

Geophysical Survey data
The site of the Medina is included within the Maritime and Coastguard Agency dataset 2013 HI1396 Approaches to Torbay 4m SB, a copy of which was kindly provided via the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office under the Open Government Licence v3. Interrogation of the dataset provided a high resolution bathymetric image of the site.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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