Ionic
Ship Number
346
Vessel Type
Passenger Ship
Built
Belfast
Slip Number
2
Launch Date
May 22, 1902
Delivered
December 15, 1902
Owner
Oceanic Steam Navigation Co.
Weight
12232 grt
BP Length
500 feet
Breadth
63 feet
No. of Screws
Twin
Speed (approx)
14 knots
Propulsion
quadruple expansion constructed in Belfast
Official No.
115337
Registered
Liverpool
Fate
Scrapped
Ionic

Ionic was fitted with  one funnel, twin screws, 4 masts, 4 decks and was fitted with electric light and refrigerating machinery, accommodation for 121-1st, 117-2nd and 450-3rd class passengers.. She had water ballast. There was a quadruple expansion engine with 8 cylinders of 22, 31 1/2, 46 and 66 inches diameter each pair. Stroke 48 inches. The engine delivered 604 nominal horsepower, giving the ship a speed of 14 knots.
 
Built  for the Shaw Savill & Albion - White Star Line joint service to New Zealand. Her maiden voyage to Wellington started 16th Jan.1903 and she stayed on this service until 1914 when she became a New Zealand Exprditionary Force troopship.
 
1917 used under the liner requisition scheme. 31st Jan.1919 resumed commercial service via the Panama Canal.
 
1929 converted to Cabin and Third Class accommodation.
 
1934 with the merger of White Star Line and Cunard, the ship was bought outright by Shaw Savill & Albion Line.
 
1936 owned by the group's Norfolk & North American S.S. Company, she started her final sailing on 9th September 1936 and was scrapped at Osaka the following year.
 
The ship's bell is in Auckland's War Memorial Museum. [Merchant Fleets, vol.10 by Duncan Haws]  
 
Ionic never carried sails. The masts were for derricks, wireless aerials, flags etc