LINER SUNK

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 74, 20 December 1929, Page 7

LINER SUNK

COLLISION IN FOG PASSENGERS AND CREW SAVED (United Press Association.— By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright) (JBee. December 19, 9J5 p.m.) New York, December 18. The Furness Bermuda liner Fort Victoria sank at the entrance to the harbour following a collision with tho coast liner Algonquin in a fog. Two hundred and eighty passengers and the crew of the Fort Victoria were safely transferred to the Algonquin, which suffered only slight damage. The name Fort Victoria disguised the identity of a steamer which was formerly well known in the New Zealand trade. Until she was purchased shortly after the war by Furness, Withy and Co. for the Bermuda trade the ship was the WUlochra, under which name she was built in 1912-13 for the Adelaide Steamship Co., Ltd. There were two other sister ships, Warilda and Wandilia, the trio being built for the Australian Inter-State passenger service. Not long after she arrived in Australia the WUlochra was taken over by the Union Company and under the command of the late Captain R. Neville, she was employed in the Sydney-New Zealand - Melbourne service. After the outbreak of war the WUlochra was taken up as a transport (No. 14). She assisted to carry overseas the 2nd, 4th, 6th, Sth, 10th, 13th, 18th, 26th and 36th Reinforcements of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. During her first seven voyages as a transport she was commanded by Captain Neville and subsequently by Captain A. M. Edwin (from June, 1917 onwards) and under the command of the latter she repatriated several drafts of the. N.Z.E.F. to New Zealand. Subsequently the Willochra was employed to repatriate a large number of Germans who had been interned in New Zealand. She was then purchased by Furness, Withy and Co., who renamed her Fort Victoria and employed her in the New York-Bermuda trade. ' Her sister ships Warilda and WandiUa, employed as hospital ships, were sunk during the war.