Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is indicated by _underscores_.
[Illustration: (cover)]
[Illustration: MAP SHEWING INCIDENTS, DETAILS OF WHICH ARE GIVEN IN THE
TEXT.]
A MERCHANT
FLEET AT WAR
[Illustration: “AQUITANIA” LEADING THE TRANSPORTS]
A MERCHANT
FLEET AT WAR
By
ARCHIBALD HURD
Author of “The British Fleet in the
Great War,” “Command of the Sea,”
“Sea-Power,” etc. etc.
[Illustration]
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
1920
_All rights reserved_
_Over the warring waters, beneath the wandering skies,
The heart of Britain roameth, the Chivalry of the sea,
Where Spring never bringeth a flower, nor bird singeth in a tree,
Far, afar, O beloved, beyond the sight of our eyes,
Over the warring waters, beneath the stormy skies._
ROBERT BRIDGES.
[Illustration]
PREFACE
During a war, which was at last to draw into its vortex practically
the whole human race--the issue depending, first and foremost, on sea
power--there was little time or opportunity or, indeed, inclination
on the part of British seamen to keep a record of their varied
activities. The very nature of many of the incidents recorded in the
following pages precluded the preparation of detailed reports at the
time. Nor can we forget that many of the officers and men, to whose
resource, courage, and devotion this volume bears testimony, have
joined the great silent army of the dead to whose exploits the freedom
of conscience of every man and woman in the British Empire, as well as
their state of material comfort, bear witness.
This book has been written under not a few difficulties, and it owes
whatever merit it possesses to many individuals--captains, officers,
engineers, pursers and other ministers to British sea-power--who have
assisted in its preparation, whether by recounting incidents in which
they took part, by placing written records at my disposal, or by
lending photographs from which the illustrations have been prepared. I
would especially emphasise that the illustrations have been made from
photographs of all sorts and shapes, taken by all kinds of cameras,
though for the most part of pocket size. Many of the pictures were
snapped under dull and forbidding skies, and some were secured in the
very presence of the enemy in mad pursuit of his piratical policy. Some
of these pictures were soaked with sea water, and other were recovered
from destruction at the last moment. The value of the illustrations
lies not so much in their perfection as in the knowledge that they were
taken “on active service.”
Finally a word should be said, perhaps, of another difficulty which
confronts any one who endeavours to tell the story of what merchant
sailors did during the Great War. These men dislike publicity and their
modesty disarms the inquisitor. Like their comrades of the Royal Navy,
they are content if they can feel that they have done their duty.
They would leave it at that. But were silence to be maintained, later
generations would be robbed, for the progress of humanity depends, in
no small measure, on the manner in which the memory of great deeds
is preserved, and handed down from age to age. No man can live unto
himself.
The story of the contribution which British seamen have made to the
happiness and well being of the world can never be half told, and these
pages form merely a footnote to one of the most glorious epics in human
annals. They go forth in the hope that they may help to perpetuate
those sterling virtues which find increasing expression in the British
race throughout the world. James Anthony Froude once declared that all
that this country has achieved in the course of three centuries has
been due to her predominance as an ocean power. “Take away her merchant
fleets; take away the navy that guards them; her empire will come to
an end; her colonies will fall off like leaves from a withered tree;
and Britain will become once more an insignificant island in the North
sea.” So I hope this book may be regarded not merely as a footnote to
history, but may remind all and sundry of the priceless heritage which
our seamen of all classes and degrees have left in our keeping.
ARCHIBALD HURD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword xvii
CHAPTER
I. Mobilisation 1
II. Combatant Cunarders 12
III. Carrying on 38
IV. The Ordeal of the “Lusitania” 58
V. The Toll of the Submarines 87
VI. Shore Work for the Services 119
ILLUSTRATIONS
_In Colour_
“AQUITANIA” LEADING THE TRANSPORTS _Frontispiece_
_To face page_
“AQUITANIA” ESCORTED BY DESTROYERS 4
“MAURETANIA” ESCORTED BY DESTROYERS 12
TORPEDOING OF THE “IVERNIA” 28
“CARMANIA” SINKING “CAP TRAFALGAR” 36
TORPEDOING OF THE “AUSONIA” 44
TORPEDOING OF THE “LUSITANIA” 52
“PHRYGIA” SINKING A SUBMARINE 60
TORPEDOING OF THE “THRACIA” 68
“VALERIA” SINKING A SUBMARINE 84
TORPEDOING OF THE “VOLODIA” 92
“AQUITANIA” AS HOSPITAL SHIP 108
“CAMPANIA” AS SEAPLANE SHIP 124
_In Monochrome_
_To face page_
“AQUITANIA” AT SOUTHAMPTON WITH CANADIAN TROOPS 2
EMBARKATION 6
TRANSPORT IN SOUTHAMPTON WATER 6
CANADIAN TROOPS ON “CARONIA” BEING ADDRESSED BY THEIR
COMMANDER 8
THE “CAMPANIA” SINKING IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH 10
THE “CARMANIA” STARBOARD FORWARD GUNS 14
ROPE PROTECTION ON “CARMANIA” AGAINST SHELL SPLINTERS 14
LIFE ON A TRANSPORT (i): KIT INSPECTION 16
LIFE ON A TRANSPORT (ii): RIFLE DRILL 16
THE “CARMANIA” READY FOR ACTION 18
SOUTH AFRICAN INFANTRY ON BOARD THE “LACONIA” 22
THE “CARONIA” LEAVING DURBAN 24
H.M.S. “MERSEY” ALONGSIDE THE “LACONIA” OFF THE RUFIGI
RIVER 26
THE “CARMANIA” APPROACHING TRINIDAD 30
ONE OF THE “CARMANIA’S” GUNS 30
“ABANDON SHIP” DRILL AT SEA 32
AFTER THE FIGHT 32
CHART-HOUSE AND BRIDGE OF THE “CARMANIA” AFTER THE FIGHT 34
THE “LACONIA” AT DURBAN 38
FINAL OF THE S.A.I. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE “LACONIA” 38
THE NELSON PLATE PRESENTED TO THE “CARMANIA” 40
CREW LEAVING THE “FRANCONIA” AFTER SHE WAS TORPEDOED 42
SCENE ON BOARD AFTER THE TORPEDOING OF THE “IVERNIA” (i) 46
SCENE ON BOARD AFTER THE TORPEDOING OF THE “IVERNIA” (ii) 48
THE TORPEDOING OF THE “IVERNIA”: SURVIVORS AFLOAT ON RAFT 50
THE TORPEDOING OF THE “IVERNIA”: SURVIVORS BEING TAKEN
IN ONE OF THE BOATS 54
THE “LUSITANIA” 56
THE “MAURETANIA” AS A HOSPITAL SHIP OFF NAPLES HARBOUR 58
THE “ALAUNIA” AS AN EMERGENCY HOSPITAL SHIP 62
THE “LUSITANIA” PASSING THE OLD HEAD OF KINSALE 64
THE “WHITE WAKE” THAT STRETCHED TO THE BEACHES OF GALLIPOLI 66
OFFICERS, NURSES AND R.A.M.C. ORDERLIES OF H.M.H.S. “AQUITANIA” 70
“HOMEWARD BOUND.” 70
THE SUN-CURE 72
THE “FRANCONIA” PASSING THROUGH THE SUEZ CANAL 72
AMERICAN TROOPS NEVER FORGOT THE “LUSITANIA” 74
IN THE SPRING OF 1918 THE “MAURETANIA” BROUGHT 33,000
AMERICAN SOLDIERS TO EUROPE 78
THE “AQUITANIA’S” STAGE 80
THE “SAXONIA,” CAMOUFLAGED, LEAVING NEW YORK WITH
AMERICAN TROOPS FOR EUROPE 80
WELCOMING THE FIRST CONTINGENT OF RETURNING AMERICAN
TROOPS, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 1918 82
THE “MAURETANIA” ARRIVING AT NEW YORK, DECEMBER 1918 82
BOAT DRILL ON A CUNARD HOSPITAL SHIP 86
THE “AQUITANIA’S” GARDEN LOUNGE AS HOSPITAL WARD 88
THE “AURANIA” ASHORE AFTER BEING TORPEDOED 90
THE “IVERNIA” SETTLING DOWN 90
THE “IVERNIA” SURVIVORS ARRIVING IN PORT 94
TROOPS LANDING FROM THE “MAURETANIA” 94
THE “DWINSK” SETTLING DOWN AFTER BEING TORPEDOED 96
SURVIVORS FROM THE “DWINSK” AFTER EIGHT DAYS IN THE
LIFEBOAT 96
THE “MAURETANIA” LEAVING SOUTHAMPTON 98
“FATHER NEPTUNE” CARED LITTLE FOR THE PREYING SUBMARINES 102
AN ARMED CRUISER’S RANGE FINDER 102
THE “THRACIA” FAST 104
THE “AQUITANIA” RE-APPEARS IN THE MERSEY 106
OFFICERS OF THE TORPEDOED “FRANCONIA” 110
A CUNARD CREW BUYING WAR SAVINGS CERTIFICATES 110
ONE OF THE AMERICAN HOWITZERS, ASSEMBLED AT THE CUNARD
WORKS 112
THE “AQUITANIA’S” CHAPEL 112
CUNARD NATIONAL AEROPLANE FACTORY 114
INTERIOR OF THE AEROPLANE FACTORY (i) 118
INTERIOR OF THE AEROPLANE FACTORY (ii) 118
INTERIOR OF THE AEROPLANE FACTORY (iii) 120
RUSSIAN REFUGEES ON THE “PHRYGIA” 120
ONE OF THE ROOMS IN THE CUNARD SHELL WORKS 122
A RECORD OF “STRIKING” VALUE 122
A HOSPITAL WARD IN THE LOUNGE OF THE “MAURETANIA” 126
THE “AQUITANIA” LOUNGE AS ORDERLY ROOM 128
OFFICERS’ WARD IN THE SMOKING ROOM OF THE “AQUITANIA” 128
MEN’S WARD IN THE LOUNGE OF THE “AQUITANIA” 132
THE “FRANCONIA” SINKING 136
FOREWORD
There was never a time in our history when the value of the Mercantile
Marine to our national life was as apparent as it is to-day. After
passing through the crucible of war, we are what we are, mainly,
because we are the possessors of ships.
When the Great War came, we possessed only a small, though highly
trained, Army, and the guns of our Navy extended little further than
high-water mark. How could we, a community of islanders, in partnership
with other islanders living in Dominions thousands of miles away,
hope to make our strength felt on the battlefields of the Continent
of Europe, where the military Powers were mobilising conscript armies
counted not by thousands, but by millions? The original Expeditionary
Force, as finely tempered a fighting instrument as ever existed, was
at once thrown across the Channel in merchant ships and it held in
check the victorious army of Germany, saving by a miracle, the Channel
ports; then, having mobilised on the eve of the declaration of war,
the Royal Navy, the great protective force of the British peoples, we
mobilised also the Merchant Navy, their essential sustaining force,
bridged the oceans of the world, and concentrated on the conflict
the enormous and varied powers of the 400,000,000 inhabitants of the
Commonwealth. In Belgium and France as in the Pacific, in Gallipoli
as in Eastern Africa, in Salonica as in Mesopotamia, and in Italy as
in Palestine, British troops were soon confronting the forces of the
Central Alliance; every ocean was dominated by British men-of-war.
The enemies had the advantage of interior military lines, but by the
aid of ships--carrying troops, munitions, and stores--we gradually
forged a hoop of steel round them and slowly but irresistibly drew it
tighter and tighter until, their economic power having been strangled
by sea power, their naval and military power was weakened and they were
compelled to sue for peace. If it had not been for our ships--ships of
commerce drawing strength from the seas, and ships of war, efficiently
policing those seas--the Allies could not by any possibility have won
the Great War and Germans would to-day be the dominant race, not only
in Europe, but in both hemispheres.
It is a common error to think of sea power in terms only of
battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The secret of the
spread of Anglo-Saxon civilisation, with its ideals of fair play,
tolerance and personal liberty, its hatred of tyranny and love of
justice, is not to be found as much in these emblems of organised
violence as in merchant ships. Out of our island State the Merchant
Fleet, a purely individualistic institution, developed by the
compulsion of geographical necessities; the British people could not
exist without ships even in days when their numbers were small and
the standard of living was relatively low. The population has trebled
in the last hundred years and the level of comfort of all classes
has risen, and to-day the very existence of the 45,000,000 people of
the British Isles, as well as their commercial and social relations
with the other sections of the Empire, depends on the sufficiency and
efficiency of the Mercantile Marine.
We possessed a trading Navy, with fine traditions of peace and war,
long before we had a Fighting Navy. The owners of merchant ships for
many centuries defended this country from raids and invasions, just
as it was the early merchant-adventurers who laid the foundations of
the Empire. Thus as far back as the reign of Athelstan, we find this
Saxon king granting a Thaneship--or, as one might say, a knighthood--to
every merchant who had been three voyages of length in his own trading
vessel. It was largely with the ships of merchant owners that in 1212
the English, by raiding France, prevented a French invasion, and that
in 1340 one of the greatest British naval victories was won over vastly
superior forces at the battle of Sluys. And though, by the time of the
Armada, merchant ships were but as it were the core of the fleets that
fought and destroyed the threatened world domination of Spain, they
played an exceedingly important part in that epoch-making struggle,
which marked the emergence of this Island as a world power. Similarly
the Indian Empire, the early American Colonies, and many other British
Possessions all over the world, were founded by merchant shipping
enterprise alone. From time immemorial, the British merchantman has
carried the flag to the outermost parts of the world and thus helped to
maintain its prestige.
The Mercantile Marine and Navy have always been so closely knit that
it is often difficult to separate their histories. The Mercantile
Marine was in reality, as has been said, the parent of the latter.
As the State grew, and civilisation became more complex, a process
of separation between the ships of commerce and the ships of war was
inevitable, and the Navy became more and more a distinct Royal Service.
The increasing difficulties of the problems of defence, armament,
and so on, led to a process of specialisation, and could only be
adequately studied and the Empire’s growing needs supplied by a State
Department. On the other hand, the Mercantile Marine remained, and
still remains, individualistic, each merchant ship-owner, or company of
ship-owners, building the sort of vessel best adapted to the particular
enterprise in hand. Thus we have sailing from our ports, ships of
all descriptions, ocean-going liners carrying passengers, cargoes
and mails, as well as tramps, colliers, cold-storage vessels, and an
infinity of other types.
But while this process of separation, or specialisation, has been
both inevitable and fruitful, the Mercantile Marine has, in every
war, been called upon by the Navy to provide transports, auxiliary
cruisers, hospital and munition ships, and, in the recent Great War,
minesweepers, submarine chasers, ‘Q’ ships, and many other equally
vital subsidiaries. Similarly, in the personnel of the Mercantile
Marine, the Navy has always had a powerful reserve, not only of
experienced sailors, but of actual navally-trained officers and men.
Without these, it is safe to say that the Navy could never have
undertaken, or accomplished, those vast and world-wide, and many of
them unforeseeable, tasks, so magnificently and successfully carried
out; and it is equally true that but for the Mercantile Marine, the
armies of the whole Alliance would have been paralysed.
In no history, however long and laboriously compiled, would it be
possible to do full justice to the war-work of the British Mercantile
Marine, but the present volume supplies, at any rate, an index to the
scope and value of what it performed. In the re-action of one unit,
of one old, honourable, and successful merchant shipping Company
to the demands of the world war, it is perhaps possible to realise
more clearly than by making a wider sweep of research, the amazing
accomplishments of the whole; and where all rose, with magnificent
unity, to heights of service never surpassed in our annals, none
excelled either in the prescience or organizing ability of its
directors, in the courage and resource of its captains and crews, or in
the loyalty and ingenuity of its skilled and unskilled employees, the
record of the Cunard Steamship Company.
A MERCHANT FLEET AT WAR
CHAPTER I
Mobilisation
_Oh hear! Oh hear!
Across the sullen tide,
Across the echoing dome horizon-wide,
What pulse of fear
Beats with tremendous boom?
What call of instant doom,
With thunder-stroke of terror and of pride,
With urgency that may not be denied,
Reverberates upon the heart’s own drum
Come! ... Come! ... for thou must come!_
HENRY NEWBOLT.
In order to obtain the truest conception of what the Cunard Company
stood for in 1914, it will be well not only to consider very briefly
its first origin and steady growth, but to refresh our memories by
recalling one or two of the tidemarks of ocean-going navigation. Thus
it was in 1802, in the year, that is to say, following Nelson’s great
victory at Copenhagen, in the year of the Peace of Amiens, and three
years before the Battle of Trafalgar, that the first successful,
practical steamer was launched. This was the _Charlotte Dundas_, built
by William Symington on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and fitted with an
engine constructed by Watt, which drove a stern wheel. This vessel
proved to be an inspiration to Robert Fulton, who in 1807 built the
_Clermont_ at New York, a wooden steamer 133 feet long, engined by
Bolton and Watt. In the autumn of that year, this vessel made a trip
from New York to Albany, a distance of 130 miles in 32 hours, returning
in 30 hours, and thenceforward maintained the first continuous long
distance service performed by any steam vessel. Five years later Bell’s
famous steamer, the _Comet_, began the earliest, regular steamer
passenger service in Europe.
In 1814 the _Marjory_, the first steamer to run regularly on the
River Thames, began her career; but it was not until 1819 that the
_Savannah_, a wooden sailing ship of American construction, but fitted
with engines and a set of paddles amidships, crossed the Atlantic,
arriving at Liverpool after 29½ days. In the following year the
_Condé de Palmella_ was the first engined ship to sail across the
Atlantic from east to west, namely from Liverpool to the Brazils.
[Illustration: “AQUITANIA” AT SOUTHAMPTON WITH CANADIAN TROOPS]
These were but tentative experiments, however, and the Transatlantic
Steamship Service, as we see it to-day, did not really begin till
the year 1838, when the steamers _Sirius_ and _Great Western_ sailed
within a few days of each other from London and Bristol respectively.
Both ships crossed without mishap, the _Sirius_ in 17 days, and the
_Great Western_ in 15. In the same year, the _Royal William_ and the
_Liverpool_ crossed from Liverpool to New York in 19 days and 16½ days
respectively.
It was now clear that a new era in transatlantic navigation had dawned,
and the Admiralty, who were then responsible for the arrangement of
overseas postal contracts, and had hitherto been satisfied to entrust
the carrying of mails to sailing vessels, invited tenders for the
future conveyance of letters to America by steam vessels. One of their
advertisements, as it happened, came into the hands of Mr. Samuel
Cunard; he was the son of an American citizen of Philadelphia, who
had settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in which city he had been born
in 1787. For some time the idea of developing a regular service of
steamers between America and England had been simmering in Mr. Cunard’s
brain. He was already in his 50th year, a successful merchant and ship
owner; and he now resolved to visit England with the intention, if
possible, of raising sufficient capital to put his ideas into practice.
Armed with an introduction to Mr. Robert Napier, a well-known Clyde
shipbuilder and engineer, he went to Glasgow, after having received but
little sympathy in London. Through Mr. Napier he became acquainted with
Mr. George Burns, a fellow Scotsman of great ability and long practical
experience as a ship-owner, and through him with Mr. David McIver,
also a Scotsman of sagacity and enterprise, then living at Liverpool.
Between the three of them the necessary capital was obtained, and Mr.
Cunard was able to submit to the Admiralty a tender for the conveyance
of mails once a fortnight between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston,
U.S.A. His tender was considered so much better than that offered by
the owners of the _Great Western_ that it was accepted, and a contract
for seven years was concluded between the Government and the newly
formed British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, as
it was then called.
[Illustration: “AQUITANIA” ESCORTED BY DESTROYERS]
Such was the beginning of the Cunard Company in the shape of four
wooden paddle-wheel steam vessels, built on the Clyde, the _Britannia_,
_Acadia_, _Caledonia_, and _Columbia_; and its history from then
until 1914 was one of steady and enterprising, cautious and daring,
development. This is not the place to linger in detail over the
technical strides made since 1840 by the Cunard Company’s directors,
but one or two of the more important milestones should perhaps be
noted. In the year 1804, John Stevens in America had successfully
experimented with the screw-propeller, and in 1820, at the Horsley
Iron Works, at Tipton in Staffordshire, Mr. Aaron Manby had designed
and built the first iron steamer. It had always been the policy of the
Cunard Company to keep in touch with every new marine experiment, but
at the same time it had been their wise habit, both from the commercial
point of view and that of the safety of their passengers and crews,
to move circumspectly in the adoption of new devices. It was not,
therefore, until 1852 that the first four iron screw steamships were
added to their fleet, namely the _Australian_, _Sydney_, _Andes_,
and _Alps_, four vessels that were also the first belonging to the
Company to be fitted with accommodation for emigrants. For the next
ten years, however, it was found that passengers still preferred
the old paddle-wheel system, and side by side with their iron screw
steamers, the Company continued to build these until, in 1862, the
_Scotia_ proved to be the last of a dying type. Meanwhile, in 1854,
the Government was to realise another side of the value to the nation
of the Cunard Company. During the Crimean War, in response to a strong
Government appeal, the Company immediately placed at the Admiralty’s
disposal, six of their best steamers, the _Cambria_, _Niagara_,
_Europa_, _Arabia_, _Andes_, and _Alps_; later adding to these their
two most recent acquisitions, the _Jura_ and _Etna_. Throughout the
campaign these eight vessels were continuously employed upon various
important missions, supplying the needs of the military forces.
[Illustration: EMBARKATION: “ARE WE DOWNHEARTED?”]
[Illustration: TRANSPORT IN SOUTHAMPTON WATER: COLONIALS’ FIRST VIEW OF
“BLIGHTY”]
Perhaps the next most important era began with the invention in 1869
of compound engines, and in 1870 the _Batavia_ and _Parthia_ were
fitted with these, and proved extremely successful, maintaining good
speeds, with a reduced consumption of fuel. The Company was now sailing
one vessel under contract with the General Post Office every week
from Liverpool to New York, calling at Queenstown, and from New York
to Liverpool, also calling at the South Irish port, and receiving a
certain subsidy for so doing. They were also maintaining services
between Liverpool and the principal ports in the Mediterranean,
Adriatic, Levant, Bosphorus, and Black Sea, and between Liverpool
and Havre. In 1881 the first steel vessel, the _Servia_, was built
for the Cunard Company. This was the most powerful as well as the
largest ship, with the exception of the famous _Great Eastern_, that
the world had then seen. She was followed in 1884 by the _Etruria_
and _Umbria_, the former of which in August, 1885, set up the record
for speed from Queenstown to New York, the journey being accomplished
in 6 days 6 hours and 36 minutes. In the meantime, research work, in
the construction of marine engines had been continued, and Dr. Price
had invented the triple expansion engine, which effected further
considerable economies in the consumption of fuel; and these were
fitted by the Cunard Company into the two great twin-screw vessels, the
_Campania_ and _Lucania_, built in 1893. With the _Campania_ we shall
deal again, as she performed valuable services in the late war, and
it is interesting to note that it was on board the _Lucania_ in 1901
that Mr. Marconi carried out certain important experiments in wireless
telegraphy, this vessel being the first, under the Cunard management,
to be fitted with a wireless installation.
Through all these years the Cunard Company had of course been submitted
to very great competition in the transatlantic trade, not only by
British lines, but by American and Continental shipping companies
also; and in the year 1900 with the _Deutschland_ and in 1902 with
the _Kaiser Wilhelm II_, what has been called the “blue ribbon” of
the Atlantic passed to Germany, these vessels having an average speed
of 23½ knots. It was then decided that the supremacy in this respect,
should, if possible, be regained by Great Britain, and, with Government
help, and in return for certain definite prospective services if
required, the Cunard Company laid down the _Lusitania_ and the
_Mauretania_. In 1907, these vessels making use of Sir Charles Parsons’
turbine engines, were put into service and soon afterwards attained a
speed of over 26 knots, and the mastery, in respect of speed, of the
Atlantic.
[Illustration: CANADIAN TROOPS ON “CARONIA,” BEING ADDRESSED BY THEIR
COMMANDER]
Enormous as were the proportions, however, of these huge vessels, they
were yet to be eclipsed by the Cunard Company’s later and most recent
giant, the _Aquitania_, a vessel that might more fitly be described
as a floating city of palaces, libraries, art galleries, and swimming
baths, than the steamship child of the little _Britannia_ of 1840.
Let us for a moment compare them, remembering that only the ordinary
span of a human life-time intervened between them. The _Britannia_
was 200 feet long, a wooden paddle-wheel steamer of 1,154 tons, 740
horse-power, and a speed of 8½ knots. The _Aquitania_ is 902 feet
long, of 46,000 tons, with quadruple screws driven by turbine engines
of a designed shaft of 60,000 horse-power, maintaining a speed of
24 knots. With her Louis XVIth staircase, her garden Lounge, her
Adams drawing-room, her frescoes, her Palladian lounge, her Carolean
smoking-room, and her Pompeian swimming bath, she can carry in the
comfort of a first-class hotel more than 3,200 passengers, together
with a crew of over 1,000.
Such then has been what one may best call, perhaps, the technical
advance of the Cunard Company, and in 1914, at the commencement
of hostilities, it had in commission 26 vessels, apart from tugs,
lighters, and other subsidiaries. Of these, since we shall presently
deal with their individual adventures, the following list may be found
convenient:
Name of Ship. Tonnage.
Gross.
AQUITANIA 45,646
MAURETANIA 30,703
LUSITANIA 30,395
CARONIA 19,687
CARMANIA 19,524
FRANCONIA 18,149
LACONIA 18,098
SAXONIA 14,297
IVERNIA 14,278
CARPATHIA 13,603
ANDANIA 13,404
ALAUNIA 13,404
CAMPANIA[A] 12,884
ULTONIA 10,402
PANNONIA 9,851
ASCANIA 9,111
AUSONIA 8,152
PHRYGIA 3,353
BRESCIA 3,235
VERIA 3,228
CARIA 3,032
CYPRIA 2,949
PAVIA 2,945
TYRIA 2,936
THRACIA 2,891
LYCIA 2,715
[A] This vessel was sold for breaking up a few weeks prior to
the outbreak of war. Her career as a warship is referred to
in these pages.
[Illustration: THE “CAMPANIA” SINKING IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH]
From this it will be seen that the total tonnage possessed by the
Cunard Company in 1914 was considerably over 300,000, and the Company
was operating services not only between the United Kingdom and the
United States of America and Canada, but also between the United States
of America and the Mediterranean, as well as from Liverpool and other
British ports to the Mediterranean and France.