The South America was a steel screw steamer of 4,197 tons gross. She was owned by Nitrate Producers Company of London and had sailed from Hamburg bound for Cardiff in water ballast, under charter to the Hamburg Amerika Line.
The 2,297-ton steamer Tripolitania of Genoa sailed from her home port on December 181th 1912, in water ballast for Barry Dcoks, under the command of Captain Elia Reppito, and when deep in the Bay of Biscay encountered the worst storm to sweep the…