RMS Tarquah

RMS Tarquah had been built by A. Stephen & Sons, Ltd., Glasgow in 1902 and owned by the African Steamship Co. on behalf of Elder, Dempster & Co. She was a British passenger steamer of 3859 tons. She sailed weekly between Liverpool and West Africa for much of her career.

During the First World War she was sunk whilst returning to Britain from West Africa off the coast of Ireland. On July 7th, 1917, Tarquah, on a voyage from Sierra Leone to Liverpool with passengers, African produce, tin and gold was sunk by the German submarine U-57 (Carl-Siegfried Ritter von Georg), 10 miles southwest from Bull Rock. There were no casualties.

The picture below shows RMS Tarquah in May 1917. RMS stands for Royal Mail Steamer which was a way that the authorities subsidised regular sailings between Britain and its far flung colonies. They would pay a subsidy to the steam ship companies to allow for the regular sailings of ships to a number of ports that would allow for regular communications to be established.