YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS: The fact that SS Armenian once sailed the high seas and worked the cargo routes of the North Atlantic is news to most people, including Armenians. Brithish SS Armenian was built during the Hamidian massacares and sunk during the Armenian Genocide.

Built as a freighter, the SS Armenian was a valuable transportation vessel in the profitable cargo service that existed between Great Britain and North America at the turn of the 20th century. The exact location of its final resting place remained a mystery until 2008, when its wreck was discovered off the western coast of England and it was seen for the first time since World War I, reports Armenpress citing English language The Armenian Mirror-Spectator weekly.

For a ship born during the Hamidian massacres, it was perhaps inevitable that it would meet its doom in that darkest of years – in 1915 – at the same time as the people with whom she shared her name were being slaughtered.

The SS Armenian was built in 1895 by Harland & Wolff, the Belfast shipyard that would later become famous for making the legendary trio Titanic, Olympic and Britannic. The vessel was 156 meters long and had a displacement of 8,825 tons.

With very little contact between Great Britain and a nation called Armenia, the clue behind the sudden name change lies in the events inundating the British press throughout 1895. During this time, the sultan and the ruling elite of the Ottoman Empire were diligently putting into action their final solution to the ‘Armenian Question,’ a solution which required the destruction of the empire’s Armenian minority as a cohesive unit and its dispersal throughout the country .

In October 1895, reports of the slaughter of hundreds of Armenian men in the town of Erzurum provoked shock and indignation across the world. Newspaper articles regularly depicted the sultan as a bloodthirsty tyrant, a butcher of women and children, and sympathy for the Armenians was widespread. Leading newspapers such as the Times, Morning Post, Daily News, New York Times and Le Petit Parisien published articles and editorials by prominent public figures condemning the Turkish crimes.  With the constant flow of news reports causing outrage and clamors for justice, it is understandable why the people behind the building of the SS Armenian would choose to rename the vessel. It may have been a small but significant gesture, an expression of solidarity with the Armenian people in their hour of torment and agony.

While heading northeast off Trevose Head, Cornwall, a watchman on the Armenian sighted a German submarine in June 1915. In what proved to be an erroneous decision, Captain James Trickey ordered the ship ahead full-steam in an attempt to outrun the U-boat, which turned out to be the U-24. The captain was signaled to stop and surrender after two shots were fired across the ship’s bow, but he refused.

The Armenian was then sunk by two torpedoes fired into its stern.

While the propaganda war raged in the newspapers, President Woodrow Wilson considered the Armenian incident before making any official pronouncements, preferring to wait until the investigation was over. His procrastination proved expedient. The ship was undeniably engaged in the transportation of contraband to England.

The furor caused by the sinking of the Armenian eventually abated because of the circumstances surrounding the event, and the US did not declare war on Germany until April 1917.

The SS Armenian was finally located and identified by wreck hunter and archaeologist Innes McCartney in 2008.