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SS Ionic

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Career (United Kingdom)

Name:	S.S. Ionic
Operator:	White Star Line
Builder:	Harland and Wolff Shipyards
Laid down:	1902
Launched:	May 22nd, 1903
Completed:	1903
Status:	Scrapped in 1936, Osaka, Japan
General characteristics
Class and type:	Corinthic Class
Tonnage:	12,352 tons
Length:	500.3 ft
Beam:	63.3 ft
Propulsion:	Twin screws (driven by quadruple expansion engines)
Speed:	14 knots
Capacity:	688 passengers

SS Ionic (II) was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1902 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line. She was the second White Star Liner to be named Ionic and served on the United Kingdom-New Zealand route. Her sister ships were the Athenic and the Corinthic.

History

Ionic was originally built to transport refrigerated meat and passengers from the United Kingdom to New Zealand. She set sail on her maiden voyage from London to Wellington on the 16th of January, 1903. Ionic was the first ship on the New Zealand route to be fitted with a Marconi wireless set. She was built with only one smokestack, buff with a black top, 4 decks and 4 masts in case her engines broke down, however no sails were ever raised on Ionic. She was fitted with electrical lighting, rare for passenger ships at that time, and boasted a beautiful open promenade deck. In WWI she was requisitioned for troop transport and narrowly missed a torpedo by less than 15 yards whilst steaming through the Mediterranean Sea. Ionic came to the aid of the crew aboard a French vessel, the Daisy, which had run aground in Grand Banks. In 1934 after the White Star Line and Cunard Line merged, Ionic was sold to the Shaw Savill and Albion Line. Ionic kept her name but her prefix "SS" was changed to "RMS". The RMS Ionic was scrapped 2 years later in 1936 in Osaka, Japan. Her bell and a faded photograph of the vessel are located in the Auckland War Memorial Museum.