(Lead Photo Credit: Ben Lair)
Introduction
The SS Justicia is one of the three most popular wrecks in Malin Head, Ireland (the others being the HMS Audacious and the SS Empire Heritage). She is also the second largest ship sank by enemy action in WW 1. The only ship bigger that sank during WW 1 was the HMHS Britannic.
The ship began life when she was launched as the Statendam flagship for the Holland America Line in Ireland in 1914. She was built by Harland & Wolff on slipway number 3 which was the same as the Titanic!
World War I delayed her completion and she was acquired by the United Kingdom in 1915 and outfitted as a troop ship and completed in 1917. At that point, she was renamed to Justicia and was assigned to carrying troops from North America to Europe. Cunard was unable to put together a crew to operate the ship so White Star Line stepped in to manager her after the Britannic sank and they had crew.
She was originally designed to be a luxury steamship but was reconfigured for troop transport and designed to carry 4,000-5,000 troops but often exceeded that capacity and had capacity to hold 15,000 tons of cargo in her holds. She was slightly smaller than the Britannic but was still 740 feet long and 86 feet across.
Sinking
In mid-July 1918, the Justicia left Belfast destined for New York and was escorted by destroyers. She was empty and unladen on her outbound voyage. The first torpedo fired on 19 July 1918 was from UB-64 (which is the same type of submarine (UB III) as the UB-88 which is sunk here in Southern California) and she developed a list but was still afloat since the watertight doors were closed. The UB-64 fired an additional two torpedos. One missed and one was destroyed by the guns on the Justicia (talk about a good shot from the gunner)!
The UB-64 then volleyed two more torpedos. Once again, the fourth torpedo was destroyed by the guns before it could hit the Justicia. However, the fifth torpedo hit the ship. She was still fighting on but they started to evacuate the ship and she was under tow by the tug Sonia.
At this point, the destroyer escorts damaged the UB-64 submarine but did not sink her and she radioed the position as she left the scene.
The next morning, on 20 July, UB-124 took over for UB-64 and fired two torpedoes which hit her amidships resulting in a number of casualties. The rest of the crew were evacuated and by noon she rolled over and sank. UB-124 paid a steep price as multiple destroyers and other ships depth charged her, forced her to the surface, and then sank her by gunfire. She was found by some divers at a depth of 93m back in 2015.
But the damage was done and one of the largest transport ships was sunk by the Germans.
The Wreck
The Justicia lies about 230 feet (70m) deep about 25 miles off the coast. She is very well known for the “bow picture” with the very large anchor on the starboard side still in the hawse. However, the bow has definitely started to collapse and I’m not sure how long it will be before it falls over to the port.
The ship is massive so we only spent time near the bow to get some classic photos and then I also did some exploration around the massive Scotch boilers. I can’t begin to describe how big these boilers are. We had a sea lion playing around the ship during most of our dive and I got a quick shot and video before going back to the downline. I also saw a cool looking “tunnel” which turned out to be the fireman’s tunnel (for those unaware, fireman on a ship were those responsible for keeping the fire stoked to create the steam to power the ship).
I had about 25 minutes on the wreck and a total dive of about 2 hours.
Photos
I was, once again, having some issues with my camera housing and buttons “sticking” but got some decent photos. Ben Lair got some great photos so I’ve included a few of his as well and noted those specifically.
These are photos of the bow area with the iconic railing (similar to the famous Titanic).
Below is a photo of Travis near the largely collapsed bridge area
These are some photos of the fireman’s tunnel
I only had time to explore a couple of the massive boilers
I was shooting some natural light photos so my shutter speed was slow (1/30th) and so my pictures of the sea lion are blurry given how fast it was moving.
Below are photos that Ben took that I think turned out very well. You can really get a sense of how big that anchor really is. I’m lighting up the bow in the upper right photo.
References
Detailed overview … mapping the wreckage (fascinating article)
Update on the story of WW1 Uboats lost off north Donegal:-
U45 was also found a few years back.
Thanks, Michael. Very much appreciated.