SS Oceana (1887)

SS Oceana was a P and O passenger liner and cargo vessel launched in 1887 by Harland and Wolff of Belfast and completed in 1888. Ordered by P and O as yard number 201, the 6,610 gross register ton ship was launched on 17 September 1887 and handed over on 26 February 1888 after running trials. Her three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine produced 7,000 indicated horsepower and a top speed of 16.5 knots. She was first assigned to carry passengers and mail between London and Australia, and later to routes between London and British India. On 16 March 1912 she collided in the Strait of Dover with the German four-masted steel barque Pisagua and sank off Beachy Head on the East Sussex coast with the loss of 17 lives. Her wreck lies in shallow water near Eastbourne, and divers can look into her engine room from above.