Noordwijk General Cemetery, Commemoration SS Mendi

On 27th February 2016 a ceremony was held for the 99th Aniversary of the sinking of the SS Mendi.

 

SS Mendi was a British 4,230 GRT passenger steamship that was built in 1905 and, as a troopship, sank after collision with great loss of life in 1917.

Alexander Stephen and Sons of Linthouse in Glasgow, Scotland launched her on 18 June 1905 for the British and African Steam Navigation Company, which appointed group company Elder Dempster & Co to manage her on their Liverpool-West Africa trades. In 1916 during the First World War the UK Admiralty chartered her as a troopship. On 21 February 1917 a large cargo steamship, Darro, collided with her in the English Channel south of the Isle of Wight. Mendi sank killing 646 people, most of whom were black South African troops. The sinking was a major loss of life for the South African military, and was one of the 20th century's worst maritime disasters in UK waters.

 

Noordwijk-NL
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