In April 1917 the ocean liner SS Medina, a former royal yacht converted into a passenger ship, left Sydney with 417 passengers and crew bound for London via Bombay, Port Said and Plymouth. On board was also a valuable private collection of the British diplomat Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, former governor of Madras and Bengal, and his wife Lady Mary Gibson-Carmichael. The family left the ship in Port Said and travelled on with HMS Sheffield, with most of their around 80 pieces of luggage staying on board the Medina. On 28 April 1917 the unarmed Medina was, three miles off the southern English headland Start Point, torpedoed without warning by the German submarine UB 31. Through the explosion of the torpedo in the engine room, the fourth engineer and five engine men died; all other persons reached the harbours of Dartmouth and Brixham in lifeboats. In the 1970s and 1980s, in several salvage operations, extensive finds were recovered, including oriental paintings, perfume flacons, Japanese porcelain, Indian brass ware, Australian gemstones, ancient Egyptian pearl jewellery, Assyrian cuneiform tablets, a coin catalogue of Sotheby's auction house and still readable letters from Lord Kitchener and Earl Rosebery. Sir Carmichael's personal Onoto Plunger Filler was also recovered. At a later auction the newly founded firm The Onoto Pen Company Limited acquired the writing instrument for its company collection. The pen was given to the well-known restorer Laurence Oldfield for assessment, who established that the Onoto was in excellent condition and the 14-carat nib too had hardly suffered damage. Only seals, piston and piston rod had to be replaced because of corrosion with original parts from donor pens. After reassembly and polishing, the Onoto wrote flawlessly again and is today regularly used by the firm's directorate.