text: hmt royal edward rms ( later hmt ) royal edward was a passenger ship belonging to the canadian northern steamship company that was sunk during the first world war with a large loss of life while transporting commonwealth troops . she was launched in 1907 as rms cairo for a british mail service to egypt . design and construction cairo and sister ship heliopolis were built by the fairfield shipbuilding and engineering company of govan , scotland . cairo was launched in july 1907 and entered service in january 1908 . as built , she was 160 . 3 metres ( 525 ft 11 in ) long ( overall ) and 18 . 4 metres ( 60 ft 4 in ) abeam . she was powered by three steam turbines that drove three propeller shafts , at up to 19 knots ( 35 km / h ) . she could accommodate up to 1 , 114 passengers in three classes : 344 in first class , 210 in second class , and 560 in third . prewar career cairo entered service for the egyptian mail steamship company , a british - owned company that provided a fast mail service between and alexandria . the service was not successful and cairo and sister ship heliopolis were laid up in 1909 when the service ended . both ships were sold to the newly established toronto - based canadian northern steamship company , a subsidiary of the canadian northern railway , in 1910 , operating under its royal line brand . cairo was renamed royal edward , heliopolis royal george , and they were refitted for the north atlantic . royal edward sailed from avonmouth to montreal in the summer and to halifax in the winter . at the outbreak of world war i royal edward and royal george were requisitioned for use as troopships . world war i royal edward was used to bring canadian troops to europe before being used as an internment ship anchored of southend - on - sea . on 28 july 1915 , royal edward embarked 1 , 367 officers and men at avonmouth . the majority were reinforcements for the british 29th infantry , with members of the royal army medical corps . all were destined for gallipoli . royal edward was reported off the lizard on the evening of the 28th , and had arrived at alexandria on 10 august , a day after sister ship royal george had sailed from devonport . royal edward sailed for moudros on the island of lemnos , a staging point for the dardanelles . on the morning of 13 august , royal edward passed the british hospital ship soudan , heading in the opposite direction . oberleutnant zur see heino von heimburg in the german submarine ub - 14 was off the island of kandeloussa and saw both ships . he allowed soudan to pass unmolested , and focused his attention on the unescorted royal edward some 6 nautical miles ( 11 km ) off kandeloussa . he launched one of ub - 14 's two torpedoes from about a mile ( 2 km ) away and hit royal edward in the stern . she sank by the stern within six minutes . royal edward was able to get off an sos before losing power , and soudan arrived on the scene at 10 : 00 after making a 180 ° turn and rescued 440 men in six hours . two french destroyers and some trawlers rescued another 221 . according to authors james wise and scott baron , royal edward 's death toll was 935 and was high because royal edward had just completed a boat drill and the majority of the men were below decks re - stowing their equipment . other sources report different numbers of casualties , from 132 to 1 , 386 or 1 , 865 . an admiralty casualty list , published in the times in september 1915 , named 13 officers and 851 troops as missing believed drowned , a total of 864 lost .