RMS Carmania (1905) - Misplaced Pages

Cunard Line transatlantic steam turbine ocean liner For other ships with the same name, see RMS Carmania.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "RMS Carmania" 1905 – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

History

United Kingdom
Name	Carmania
Namesake	Carmania
Owner	Cunard Line
Operator	1914–16: Royal Navy
Port of registry	Liverpool
Route	Liverpool – New York
Builder	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Yard number	366
Laid down	17 May 1904
Launched	21 February 1905
Completed	November 1905
Maiden voyage	2 December 1905
Identification	UK official number: 120901 Code letters HFBJ 1914–16: Pennant number: M 55
Fate	Scrapped 1932 at Blyth
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	19,566 GRT, 9,250 NRT
Length	650.4 ft (198.2 m) registered length 678 ft (207 m) o/a
Beam	72.2 ft (22.0 m)
Draught	33 ft 3 in (10.13 m)
Depth	40.0 ft (12.2 m)
Decks	3
Installed power	21,000 SHP
Propulsion	1 × High-pressure steam turbine 2 × Low-pressure steam turbines 3 × Propellers
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Capacity	As built: 2,650 berths in four classes 1923: 1,440 berths Cargo: 46,280 cubic feet (1,311 m) refrigerated
Crew	450
Sensors and processing systems	By 1930: Submarine signalling Wireless Direction finding
Armament	(as AMC): 8 × QF 4.7 inch Mk V naval guns
Notes	Sister ship: RMS Caronia

RMS Carmania was a Cunard Line transatlantic steam turbine ocean liner. She was launched in 1905 and scrapped in 1932. In World War I she was first an armed merchant cruiser (AMC) and then a troop ship.

Carmania was the sister ship of RMS Caronia, although the two ships had different machinery. When new, the pair were the largest ships in the Cunard fleet.

Building

Leonard Peskett designed Carmania. John Brown & Company built her, launching her on 21 February 1905 and completing her that November.

Carmania had three propellers, each driven by a Parsons steam turbine. A high-pressure turbine drove her centre shaft. Exhaust steam from the centre turbine powered a pair of low-pressure turbines that drove her port and starboard shafts.

Caronia, which was launched the year before, had twin propellers which were driven by quadruple-expansion engines. The essentially identical ships with the two different sets of engines was an opportunity to compare operations and clarify the advantages and disadvantages of turbine engines.

Carmania's sea trials were in November 1905. On the nautical measured mile off Skelmorlie she achieved 20.19 knots (37.39 km/h).

Another feature that differentiated the two liners was that Carmania had two tall forward deck ventilator cowls, which were absent on Caronia.

As built, Carmania had berths for 2,650 passengers: 300 first class, 350 second class, 1,000 third class and 1,000 steerage class. Her holds included 46,280 cubic feet (1,311 m) refrigerated cargo space.

Service

Carmania left Liverpool on 2 December 1905 for her maiden voyage to New York arriving on 10 December. She completed the voyage in 7 days, 9 hours and 31 minutes, averaging 15.97 knots (29.58 km/h) over the 2,835 nautical miles (5,250 km) route.

Carmania plied between Liverpool and New York from 1905 to 1910. In the spring of 1906 she took H. G. Wells to North America for the first time. He noted her size in a book about his travels, "This Carmania isn't the largest ship nor the finest, nor is to be the last. Greater ships are to follow and greater. The scale of size, the scale of power, the speed and dimensions of things about us alter remorselessly—to some limit we cannot at present descry".

Ernest Shackleton returned to Liverpool from New York after his US lecture tour, travelling 1st Class on Carmania from the 18th to the 28th May 1910.

In June 1910 in Liverpool Carmania suffered a major fire in her passenger accommodation. Her structure and machinery were undamaged, and repairs were completed by 4 October.

On an eastbound crossing in October 1913 Carmania answered a distress signal from Volturno to pick up survivors in a storm, which resulted in many awards for gallantry being presented to various members of her crew and Captain James Clayton Barr.

In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, Carmania was converted into an AMC, armed with eight QF 4.7 inch Mk V naval guns. She was commissioned as HMS Carmania, with the pennant number M 55.

Commanded by Captain Noel Grant she sailed from Liverpool to Shell Bay in Bermuda. On 14 September 1914 she engaged and sank the German merchant cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar in the Battle of Trindade. At the time Cap Trafalgar's appearance had been altered to resemble Carmania. Carmania suffered extensive damage and several casualties to her crew.

After repairs in Gibraltar, she patrolled the coast of Portugal and the Atlantic islands for the next two years. In 1916 she assisted in the Gallipoli campaign. From July 1916 she was a troop ship. After the war she took Canadian troops home from Europe.

Ernest Shackleton returned to New York from Liverpool on a camouflaged Carmania between 12th and 20th May 1917.

By 1919 she had returned to passenger liner service. In 1923 Cunard had her refitted as a cabin class ship, with her total accommodation reduced from 2,650 berths to 1,440. Caronia was similarly refitted, and the two sisters kept busy until the shipping slump caused by the Great Depression after 1929. By 1930 Carmania's navigational equipment included submarine signalling and wireless direction finding.

Fate

Toward the end of 1931 Cunard listed both Carmania and Caronia for sale. In 1932 Hughes Bolckow & Co. bought her for scrap. She arrived at Blyth on 22 April to be broken up.

Carmania's bell is on display aboard the permanently moored HQS Wellington at Victoria Embankment, London.

References

Solem, Børge. "S/S Carmania, Cunard Line". Norway~Heritage.
^ Ljungström, Henrik (23 March 2018). "Carmania (I)". The Great Ocean Liners. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
^ "Carmania". Scottish Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
^ "Steamers & Motorships". Lloyd's Register (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via Plimsoll Ship Data.
^ "The New Turbine Liner Carmania". International Marine Engineering. 11 (January). Marine Engineering: 1–6. 1906. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
Frame, Chris. "Carmania". Chris' Cunard Page.
"List of Vessels Fitted with Refrigerating Appliances". Lloyd's Register (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via Plimsoll Ship Data.
Wells, HG (1906). The Future in America: A Search after Realities. New York and London: Harper and Brothers. pp. 21, 29.
"Capt. Barr Cites Log On Volturno. Says Carmania's Part in Rescue Work Was Misrepresented in English Reports". The New York Times. 27 October 1913. Retrieved 26 February 2010. The Cunard liner Carmania arrived yesterday from Liverpool with forty-three survivors from the Volturno, including twenty-two women and children who had been rescued by the Leyland steamship Devonian and landed at Liverpool.
Howard Stagg; Naval Enthusiast (eds.). "HMS CARMANIA – August 1914 to May 1916, British waters, Central Atlantic, Carmania v Cap Trafalgar single ship action, Mediterranean". Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1 Era. Naval History.Net. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
Simpson, Colin (1977). The Ship that Hunted Itself. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-004823-5.
Wilson 1956, p. 42.
^ Wilson 1956, p. 194.

Bibliography

Osborne, Richard; Spong, Harry & Grover, Tom (2007). Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945. Windsor: World Warship Society. ISBN 978-0-9543310-8-5.
Wilson, RM (1956). The Big Ships. London: Cassell & Co.

External links

Ballins Dampfer Welt (29 July 2013). RMS Carmania, Cunard, Baton Rouge Rag, Ragtime. YouTube. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021.

v t e Ships of the Cunard Line
Current fleet	2004 RMS Queen Mary 2 2007 MS Queen Victoria 2010 MS Queen Elizabeth 2024 MS Queen Anne
Former ships 1840–1994	1840 RMS Unicorn 1840 RMS Britannia 1848 SS Satellite 1853 SS Arabia 1856 RMS Persia 1862 RMS Scotia 1863 RMS Hecla 1865 SS Java 1867 SS Russia 1870 SS Abyssinia 1870 SS Parthia 1874 SS Bothnia 1878 SS Aleppo 1879 SS Gallia 1881 SS Servia 1881 SS Catalonia 1882 RMS Aurania 1884 SS Oregon 1884 RMS Umbria 1885 RMS Etruria 1892 RMS Campania 1893 RMS Lucania 1898 SS Ultonia 1899 RMS Ivernia 1899 RMS Saxonia 1903 RMS Carpathia 1903 RMS Pannonia 1904 RMS Slavonia 1905 RMS Carmania 1905 RMS Caronia 1907 RMS Lusitania 1907 RMS Mauretania 1909 SS Thracia 1910 RMS Franconia 1911 RMS Albania 1912 RMS Laconia 1913 RMS Andania 1913 RMS Alaunia 1914 RMS Aquitania 1914 SS Orduña 1916 SS Royal George 1917 RMS Aurania 1920 SS Albania 1921 RMS Berengaria 1921 RMS Scythia 1922 RMS Samaria 1922 RMS Laconia 1922 RMS Andania 1922 RMS Antonia 1922 RMS Lancastria 1921 RMS Ausonia 1922 RMS Franconia 1924 RMS Aurania 1925 SS Letitia 1925 RMS Ascania 1925 RMS Alaunia 1925 RMS Carinthia 1934 RMS Majestic 1934 RMS Olympic 1934 MV Georgic 1934 MV Britannic 1934 SS Laurentic 1936 RMS Queen Mary 1939 RMS Mauretania 1940 RMS Queen Elizabeth 1945 SS Valacia (Empire Camp) 1947 RMS Media 1947 RMS Parthia 1949 RMS Caronia 1954 RMS Saxonia 1955 RMS Ivernia 1956 RMS Carinthia 1957 RMS Sylvania 1969 MS Queen Elizabeth 2 1970 SS Atlantic Causeway 1970 SS Atlantic Conveyor 1971 MV Cunard Adventurer 1972 MV Cunard Ambassador 1975 MS Cunard Countess 1976 MS Cunard Princess 1983 MS Sagafjord 1983 MS Caronia 1986 MS Sea Goddess I 1986 MS Sea Goddess II 1993 MS Cunard Crown Jewel 1993 MS Cunard Crown Dynasty 1994 MS Royal Viking Sun
For MoWT	1940 SS Pasteur 1941 SS Empire Barracuda 1940 MV Empire Audacity 1943 SS Empire Battleaxe 1943 SS Empire Broadsword 1945 MV Empire Ettrick
Years indicate year of entry into Cunard service.

Categories: