An ocean liner requisitioned by the Admiralty and sunk during World War One has been located in the Aegean
Aresearch team headed by Kostas Thoctarides has located the wreck of the British liner-turnedtroopship HMST Arcadian southeast of the Greek island of Sifnos at a depth of 535ft in the Aegean Sea.
Launched as SS Ortona in 1899, the Barrow-in-Furnessbuilt liner was the last built by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company for the LondonAustralia route. Chartered by the Admiralty in 1915, she had already had an interesting career, repatriating troops after the Second Boer War, carrying the New Zealand Rugby League team on its 1907–1908 tour of Australia and Great Britain and, after conversion, becoming the then largest-ever dedicated cruise ship in 1912. Serving in the Royal Navy as a troopship, she was also used by General Sir Ian Hamilton as a headquarters during the early stages of the 1915-1916 Gallipoli campaign.
On April 15, 1917, Arcadian was sailing from Salonika to Alexandria with an escort comprising HMS Sentinel and, some claim, an allied Japanese destroyer. Moving at 13½kt with 1,155 personnel aboard in addition to her crew, th…
