SS Pericles

SS Pericles was a British steam ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the Aberdeen Line service between Great Britain and Australia via South Africa. She was launched on 21 December 1907 and completed on 4 June 1908, and she was the first ship the yard built for Aberdeen Line. Measuring 10,925 gross register tons, she had twin screws driven by quadruple-expansion steam engines rated at 1,075 nominal horsepower, and when new she was the largest ship on the route. Two sisters followed, Themistocles in 1910 and Demosthenes in 1911. On 31 March 1910 she struck an uncharted rock off St Alouarn Island, southeast of Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia, and sank bow-first without loss of life. Federal Australian law now protects her wreck for its historic significance.