Editing SS Carnatic (section)

{{Short description|British steamship wrecked in the gulf of Suez }}
{{other ships|Carnatic (ship)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=Carnatic ss.jpg
|Ship caption=SS Carnatic
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country= United Kingdom
|Ship flag={{Shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}}
|Ship name= SS ''Carnatic''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator=Peninsula & Orient Steam Navigation Company
|Ship registry=
|Ship route=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=[[Samuda Brothers]], [[Cubitt Town]], [[London]]
|Ship original cost=
|Ship yard number=
|Ship way number=
|Ship laid down=30 January 1862
|Ship launched=6 December 1862
|Ship sponsor=
|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=25 April 1863
|Ship acquired=
|Ship maiden voyage=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship identification=
|Ship motto=
|Ship fate=Wrecked, 12 September 1869
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship type= Steam ship
|Ship tonnage= {{GRT|1,776}}
|Ship displacement=
|Ship length={{Convert|89.4|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{Convert|11.6|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship height=
|Ship draught= {{Convert|7.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship decks=
|Ship deck clearance=
|Ship power=
|Ship propulsion=[[Humphrys, Tennant and Dykes]] 4-cylinder compound inverted steam engine, {{Convert|2442|hp|0|abbr=on}}, single shaft
|Ship sail plan= [[Brig]]<ref name="Standard 11 1869">{{cite news |title=The Loss of the Carnatic |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000183/18691124/008/0002?browse=False |access-date=16 September 2020 |work=London Evening Standard |date=24 Nov 1869 |page=2}}</ref>
|Ship speed= {{Convert|12|kn|lk=in}}
|Ship range=
|Ship endurance=
|Ship boats=
|Ship capacity= 250 passengers{{Citation needed|reason=this number seems very dubious|date=September 2020}}
|Ship crew=
|Ship notes= 31 persons lost in the shipwreck
}}
|}
'''SS ''Carnatic''''' was a British [[steamship]] built in 1862-63 by [[Samuda Brothers]] at [[Cubitt Town]] on the [[Isle of Dogs]], London, for the [[Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company]] (P&O). She operated on the [[Suez]] to [[Bombay]] run in the last years before the [[Suez Canal]] was opened. This route gave a fast, steamship-operated route from Britain to India, connecting with similar steamships running through the Mediterranean to Alexandria, with an overland crossing to Suez. The alternative was to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, a distance at which steam ships were not, in the early 1860s, sufficiently economical to be commercially competitive with sail.

As one of the first British steamships to use a compound engine, ''Carnatic'' achieved a much better fuel economy (at 2lbs of coal per indicated horsepower-hour) than most other contemporary steamers. P&O had a number of compound-engined ships built in the first half of the 1860s: ''Poonah'' (1863), ''Golconda'' (1863) and ''Baronda'' (1864).{{r|Advent|p=170}}

In 1869, she ran aground on a coral reef in the Red Sea and broke apart the following morning, with the loss of 31 lives. Her wreck was rediscovered in 1984 and is now a popular scuba diving site.