An item dated Constantinople 18 January referred to comments of the chief commander of the Turkish navy reported to his minister that it was the cruiser Hamidié instead of the Mezjidié which had been active and destroyed the powder magazine in the harbour of Syra [Syros]and the Greek auxiliary cruiser Makedonia.(1)
Note
1. The newspaper Het nieuws van den dag dated 16 January had published an item dated Athens 15 January had reported that the Turkish cruiser Medjidieh managed to leave the Dardanelles that same night using the misty weather appearing in the afternoon off the island Syra where a factory was bombarded and with 15 gunshots the Greek auxiliary cruiser Makedonia destroyed. She was lying there to be repaired. The Turkish cruiser continued her voyage towards Little Asia. The newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad dated 16 January said that the Makedonia was scuttled by her own crew after the attack. The newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant dated 16 January confirmed that her own crew scuttled her by opening the valves. Her crew escaped on land. Her commanding officer was captain Tsoenkalos. It was not the powder magazine but the power station which was destroyed. The edition dated the 25th reported that she was a former passenger ship of 10.000 tons converted into an auxiliary cruiser. Also called Macedonia. The newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad dated 24 May 1917 supplies more details about what happened afterwards with her. An reporter sighted her lying alongside the shipyard of Wilton-Fijenoord in Rotterdam at that moment property of the Hollandsche Algemeene Atlantische Scheepvaartmaatschappij (H.A.A.S.) in Rotterdam. She looked completely new with a grey painted hull, white decks and two black funnels with a white band in which a white ‘H’ and green topped. She was built in 1912 as passenger ship in Sunderland for the Compagnie de Navigation à Vapeur for the line Piraeus-New York and after 3 voyages purchased by the Greek cabinet. She was set into fire by the gunshots and scuttles to prevent her final loss. She was later salvaged and transported to the arsenal in Salamis and there laid up. Two trials were successful. In April 1916 was she inspected by J. Bremer of the H.A.A.S. and she was bought via a public tender despite still nothing more as a wreck. Her hull and engines were in good order. A Greek firm was the other interested buyer. Under supervision of Bremer was she prepared for the voyage towards the Netherlands. On 11 August left she Phalère with a crew of 36 men, consisting of Dutch officers and engineers and Greek sailors. On the 29th arrived she at Rotterdam with a speed of 10-12 miles . At Rotterdam she was converted into a common freighter with the possibility in the future to be converted into a passenger ship. Her her captain was J. de Voogd.
