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SS ''Persia'' was a P&O passenger liner, built in 1900 by Caird & Company, Inverclyde, Greenock, Scotland. It was torpedoed and sunk without warning on 30 December 1915, by German U-Boat commander Max Valentiner. ==History== long, with a beam of , draft of and a size of , ''Persia'' carried triple expansion steam engines capable of driving the ship at .〔 ''Persia'' was sunk off Crete, while the passengers were having lunch, on 30 December 1915, by German World War I U-Boat ace Max Valentiner (commanding ). ''Persia'' sank in five to ten minutes, killing 343 of the 519 aboard. The sinking was highly controversial, since it broke naval international law, or the "Cruiser Rules", which stated that merchant ships could be stopped and searched for contraband, but could only be sunk if the passengers and crew were put in a place of safety (for which, lifeboats on the open sea were not sufficient). Instead, the U-Boat fired a torpedo with no warning, and made no provision for any survivors. This action took place under Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, but broke the Imperial German Navy’s own restriction on attacking passenger liners, the Arabic pledge. At the time of sinking, ''Persia'' was carrying a large quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh, though he himself had disembarked at Marseilles. Among the passengers to survive were Walter E. Smith, a British Member of Parliament, Colonel Charles Clive Bigham, son of Lord Mersey, and John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. His secretary (and mistress) Eleanor Thornton, who was the model for the Rolls-Royce "Spirit of Ecstasy" mascot by Charles Sykes, died. Also among the dead were Robert N. McNeely, American Consul at Aden, and American missionary Rev. Homer Russell Salisbury. Only 15 of the women on board survived, among them British actress Ann Codrington (''The Rossiter Case''), who was pregnant with her daughter, Patricia Hilliard. Ann lost her mother, Mrs. Helen Codrington. The sinking was front page news on many British newspapers, including the ''Daily Mirror'' and the ''Daily Sketch''. The wreck of ''Persia'' was located off Crete in 2003 at a depth of , and an attempt was made to salvage the treasure located in the bullion room. The salvage attempt met with limited success, retrieving artifacts and portions of the ship, and some jewels from the bullion room. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS Persia (1900)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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