SS Transylvania was a British passenger liner built by the Anchor Line in 1914. The ship was torpedoed and sunk on May 4, 1917, by the German U-boat SM U-63 while carrying Allied troops to Egypt. The wreck was discovered by the Italian Carabinieri on October 7, 2011, off the coast of the island of Bergeggi at an approximate depth of 630 metres.
The ship sank immediately after being struck by a second torpedo, resulting in the loss of 412 lives, including ten crew members, 29 army officers, and 373 soldiers. The Transylvania was a 14,348-gross register ton steamer designed to carry 1,379 passengers but was serving as a troopship with a capacity of 2,860 men.
Many bodies of victims were recovered and buried in the Savona Town Cemetery, which contains 85 Commonwealth burials from the First World War, all but two of them casualties from Transylvania. Among those killed on board was the cricketer Major Richard Worsley. The Savona Memorial also commemorates 275 further casualties who died when the ship sank but whose graves are unknown.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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