SS Justicia

Justicia in wartime grey
History
United Kingdom
Name	1914: Statendam 1917: Justicia
Namesake	1917: Lady Justice
Owner	Oceanic Steam Navigation Co
Operator	White Star Line
Port of registry	Liverpool
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number	436
Laid down	1912
Launched	9 July 1914
Completed	7 April 1917
Identification	UK official number 137544 code letters JPFL
Fate	Sunk by six torpedoes, 1918
General characteristics
Type	Troop ship
Tonnage	32,120 GRT, 19,699 NRT
Length	740.5 ft (225.7 m)
Beam	86.4 ft (26.3 m)
Depth	43.1 ft (13.1 m)
Installed power	2,903 NHP, 22,000 ihp
Propulsion	3 × Propeller 2 × Triple expansion engines 1 × Low-pressure steam turbine
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h)
Troops	About 4,000
Crew	600
Armament	Naval gun on poop deck

SS Justicia was a British troop ship that was launched in Ireland in 1914 and sunk off County Donegal in 1918. She was designed and launched as the transatlantic liner Statendam, a new flagship for the Holland America Line (NASM), but the outbreak of First World War delayed her completion. In 1915 NASM agreed to let the United Kingdom acquire her and have her completed as a troop ship.

The ship was completed in 1917 and renamed Justicia, with the intention that Cunard Line would crew and operate her. However, Cunard was unable to raise a crew for her, so the Shipping Controller appointed White Star Line to manage her.

Justicia entered service in April 1917, carrying troops from North America to Europe. She escaped a U-boat attack in January 1918, but sank that July off the coast of Ireland after two U-boats hit her with a total of six torpedoes making her the second largest ship to sink in WW1 behind Britannic, and the largest to be sunk by a torpedo in the first world war. Britannic struck a mine rather than a torpedo.

The ship was 90 ft (27 m) longer and 9 ft (3 m) broader than NASM's then flagship, the 24,149 GRT Rotterdam, which Harland & Wolff had completed in 1908. Statendam would have been by far the largest NASM had yet owned. Only HAPAG's Imperator class, White Star Line's Olympic class and Cunard's Aquitania were larger. As it was, Justicia she became the second largest ship sunk by enemy action in the First World War. The only one larger than Justicia was the 48,148 GRT HMHS Britannic.^[1]

Justicia shared the same combined propulsion system as several other H&W liners of her era including Laurentic and Belgenland.

Justicia's wreck is in the territorial waters of the Republic of Ireland and protected by Irish law.