A Transport Medal 1899-1902 to Master G. D. Clarke

A Transport Medal 1899-1902 to Master G. D. Clarke, clasp: China 1900 (G.D. CLARKE, IN COMMAND.), good very fine.

Master of S.S. Itindra, British India Steam Line. Medal presented to his widow, Caroline Clarke, 04/03/1904. Recipient had previously been the Master of S.S. Lawada

Itinda was one of the 'I' class of fourteen essentially identical steamers ordered for the British India Steam Navigation Company between 1898 and 1900. Built by William Denny at Dumbarton and launched in March 1900, Itinda was registered at 5,203 tons gross and measured 410 feet in length with a 51 foot beam. Although she sported an auxiliary schooner rig, she could steam at 10.5 knots and was brand new when chartered by the government to take troops to China for the Boxer Rebellion under the command of Captain G.D. Clarke. During the Great War she was once again requisitioned as a troop transport and was used exclusively by the Indian Expeditionary Force. On 10th May 1918, whilst en route from Syracuse to Alexandria carrying army stores, she was torpedoed by the Austrian submarine U47 and sank after twenty tons of HE shells exploded and blew off her stern.