SS Anglia was a was a UK twin screw passenger steamship. She was launched in Scotland in 1899 for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). She was requisitioned as an armed boarding steamer in 1914, and converted into a hospital ship in 1915. On 17 November 1915, a mine laid by a German U-boat sank her in the English Channel.
In 1899 â 1900, William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton built a pair of passenger ferries for the LNWR. Yard number 618 was launched on 10 October 1899 as , yard number 619 was launched on 20 December as Anglia, and both ships were completed in 1900. Both were sister ships of , which Denny Brothers had built in 1897.
Anglias registered length was , her beam was , and her depth was . Her tonnages were and . She had twin screws, each driven by a four-cylinder triple expansion engine. Their combined power was rated at 424 NHP, and gave her a speed of . The LNWR registered her at Dublin. Her UK official number was 111031, and her code letters were RPKB.
At first her route was between Holyhead and Dublin North Wall. From 1908 her route was between Holyhead and Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire). She was equipped with submarine signalling by 1910, and wireless telegraphy by 1912. By 1914, her call sign was GRE.
With the outbreak of war in August 1914, Anglia was requisitioned as an armed boarding steamer. In April 1915 she was converted into a hospital ship.
On 17 November 1915, she was returning from Calais to Dover, carrying 390 injured officers and soldiers. At around 12:30 pm, east of Folkestone Gate, she struck a mine and sank in 15 minutes. It was one of a number of mines laid by the German U-boat . The nearby torpedo gunboat helped evacuate the passengers and crew. Despite the assistance of the nearby collier Lusitania, 134 people died in the sinking.
Her stockless anchor was made into a monument at Holyhead.
In October 2014, there were calls for Anglias wreck to be designated a war grave, which would protect it under the Protection of Military Remains Act, 1986. The declaration was made in March 2017, making it illegal to remove or disturb any human remains at the wreck site.