SS Minas (1891)

SS Minas was an Italian troopship which was sunk on 15 February 1917 in the Central Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 870 lives.

Construction, characteristics, and civilian service
SS Minas was a passenger ship built in 1891 by Gio. Ansaldo & C. in Sestri Ponente, Italy, and operated by Angelo Parodi fu B. of Genoa. She was 110.90 m long and 12.22 m in beam and had a top speed of 12 kn. She could carry 60 passengers in first class and 900 in third class. Prior to Italy's entry into World War I in 1915, she travelled mainly between Genoa and South America.

Loss
Italy entered World War I on the side of Allies in May 1915, and Minas was requisitioned for use as a troopship. On 15 February 1917, she was in the Mediterranean Sea, steaming from Taranto, Italy, to Salonika, Greece, carrying Italian, Serbian, and French soldiers as well as weapons and ammunition to the Salonika front under escort by the Italian Regia Marina ("Royal Navy") destroyer ITALIAN DESTROYER Fulmine. The Allies had divided the Mediterranean into separate zones, in each of which one of the major Allied navies (the Regia Marina, the French Navy, and the British Royal Navy) had the responsibility for escort duty. Upon reaching the boundary between the Italian and British escort zones about 200 nmi east of Malta, Fulmine parted company with Minas, but due to a mix-up no British warship arrived to escort Minas. Minas continued her voyage unescorted, and later on 15 February the Imperial German Navy submarine SMU U-39, under the command of Walter Forstmann, attacked her in the Central Mediterranean east of Cape Matapan, hitting her with two torpedoes. Minas′s cargo of ammunition exploded, and she sank very quickly at 36.41667°N, 18.4°W with the loss of 870 lives. Eleven crew members and 315 Italian soldiers were among the dead. One of the lost soldiers was Vittorio Locchi, a young Florentine poet, who had written The Feast of Santa Gorizia in 1916. It was also rumored that the ship carried 25 boxes of gold bullion.