SS Ceramic
SS Ceramic -- Official White Star Line Card
Built: 1913, Harland & Wolff, Belfast. Yard No: 432
Funnels: 1 Masts: 4
Tonnage: 18,495 GRT
Dimensions: 199.67 x 21.16 m / 655.1 x 69.5 ft.
Engines: Triple Expansion plus low turbine by builders.
Triple Screw; 9,000 IHP; 15, max 16 kn.
Hull: Steel, 3 Decks, Bridge-371ft.
Passengers: 820 Cabin Class
Crew: Not Listed
The Ceramic was launched on December 11, 1912 and handed over on July 5, 1913. She made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Sydney on July 24, 1913. In August 1914 she was taken over as troop transport. In May 1916 with 2,500 troops aboard in the Mediterranean, she was narrowly missed, at midnight, by a torpedo from an unidentified vessel. In 1917 she was used on the Liner Requisition Scheme, but mainly for refrigerated cargo. On June 9, 1917 she was missed by a torpedo in the English Channel, and on July 21st she was chased by a surfaced U-boat off the Canary Islands, but escaped by speed. In 1919 she was reverted to White Star and refurbished by Harland & Wolff. On November 18, 1920 she made her first post-war voyage from Liverpool to Sydney. In 1930 she collided with P.S.N.C.'s Laguna in the lower Thames. In 1934 the Ceramic was transferred to Shaw Savill & Albion when the White Star Line merged with Cunard. She made her first voyage for her new owner on August 25, 1934 from Liverpool to Brisbane. She was reconstructed by Harland & Wolff at Govan in 1936. Her tonnage was listed at 18,731 GRT, and her passenger accommodation was changed to: 480-Cabin Class. This was then reduced to 340 in 1938. February of 1940 saw her taken over as troop transport once again. On November 23, 1942 the Ceramic left Liverpool for Australia for the last time with 656 people on board: 378 passengers, and 278 crew and gunners. Around midnight of December 6/7th, enroute Liverpool-South Africa-Australia, the Ceramic was torpedoed off the Azores by U-155. 655 lost. One survivor, a Royal Engineer sapper, was picked up by U-515 for interrogation. Her loss went unrecorded for many months until the survivor was able to write from the POW camp Marlag-Milag-Nord, near Hamburg.
