Shore Work for the Services
_Here stand we; naught else can we do!
Take us, all that we have, all we are!
We bide by the issue with you,
And this is our war!_
MARGARETTA BYRDE.
Enough, perhaps, has already been written to show how intimately
the Cunard Company was bound up with every phase, not only of our
mercantile, but our naval effort at sea; how its long experience of
maritime organisation, placed unreservedly at the country’s disposal,
became an asset in the hands of the Government of almost incalculable
importance, and how, in the course of its everyday unadvertised duties,
it lost more than half its tonnage. It was not only at sea, however,
and not wholly in connection with the problems of transport that the
Cunard Company rendered such yeoman service.
The possessors of highly efficient repairing shops, engine works,
furnishing departments, and laundries, these also were at once
mobilised at the outbreak of war, and put to the most various and vital
purposes.
Some of these, of course, were congruous with its useful efforts as a
marine concern. Thus, amongst much other work of a similar nature, we
find, for instance, that H.S. Sloops _Buttercup_ and _Gladiolus_ were
refitted, their engines over-hauled, and their hull and deck plating
repaired, while they were also provided with hydraulic release triggers
in order to enable depth charges to be released from the bridge.
H.M. ships _Riviera_ and _Empress_ were fitted out as sea-plane
carriers by the Company at Liverpool. The after-decks of both vessels
were stripped and hangars, capable of accommodating about six
sea-planes, were built on them. A mechanics’ repair shop was also
installed and special cranes, for lifting sea-planes out of the water,
were fitted.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE AEROPLANE FACTORY (iii)]
[Illustration: RUSSIAN REFUGEES ON THE “PHRYGIA” IN THE BLACK SEA,
SPRING, 1919]
The _Campania_, converted as we have seen into a sea-plane carrier, was
refitted in 1916, a thorough overhaul being carried out, including the
fitting of a new crank shaft, and the examination of, and repairs to,
her hull and engines. In 1917, H.M.S. _Scotia_, the well-known Holyhead
mail boat of the London and North Western Railway, was reconditioned,
after having been in Admiralty employment, and all necessary repairs
carried out in respect of her hull and engines. H.M.S. _Berwick_ was
also partially refitted in the same year. No less than 3,200 Plunger
control valve keys and retarding rams for 12-pound and naval guns
were made at the Company’s works; and a large amount of work was also
undertaken in connection with the fitting of submarines and mines.
This included, as regarded submarines, the provision of 520 Oilers for
exhaust valve boxes, 40 tail-end shafts, 20 complete thrust blocks,
and the machining and complete fitting of four tail-end intermediate
shafts. At the same time 456 save-alls for oil fuel were designed and
provided--the pattern of these save-alls being afterwards adopted as
the standard pattern for the Navy. Nineteen thousand, eight hundred
manganese bronze spindles for mines were turned out, as well as 1,000
mine mechanism plates. When the Admiralty decided to fit naval and
merchant ships with the paravane contrivance, as a protection against
mines, the Cunard Company manufactured for them 5,728 sets of wires for
this gear. All this work was, of course, carried out in addition to the
ordinary routine of overhauling the Company’s own fleet.
This sort of work, however, valuable as it was, was perhaps only to
be expected of a large marine Company, so efficiently organised for
many years as the Cunard Company had been. But in addition, a large
amount of work was done for the armies in the Company’s workshops,
much of which required the highest degree of accuracy and extremely
skilled workmanship. One of the most important of such contracts was
the assembling of the 9·2 American Howitzer Equipment. These enormous
guns were shipped from the United States in parts, and the work of
completing, assembling, carrying out modifications in design, and
getting them ready for use in France, was done entirely in the Cunard
Works. Eighty-four of these equipments were dealt with, and, in
addition, 100 carriages and limbers and brake gear, which were a part
and parcel of the equipment, were manufactured. Owing to the fact that
the firing beams, which were received from the United States, were
found in practice to be insufficiently strong, the Company undertook
the stripping and re-inforcing of 73 sets of these.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE ROOMS IN THE CUNARD SHELL WORKS]
[Illustration: A RECORD OF “STRIKING” VALUE]
In the critical month of March, 1918, when the Allied armies were
retreating on the Western Front, and it was clear that the crucial
point of the war was imminent, the Ministry of Munitions sent out
urgent appeals to all Munition Works. During the great retreat,
although many of the actual guns were saved, there was no time to
attempt to bring away the gun beds, and in consequence many of the
larger calibre weapons were thus rendered useless. The Cunard Company
was then asked to undertake to supply one hundred sets in as short a
time as possible. Realising the urgency of the position, the Company
succeeded in engaging the assistance of several outside firms, who
carried out part of the work under Cunard supervision, with the amazing
result that no less than 146 sets were finished and delivered complete
within a fortnight.
But for the unremitting attention of the Company’s officials and the
high degree of organisation that had been attained, such a result
would, of course, have been wholly impossible. The separate items
manufactured by outside firms were all received and distributed from
the Company’s Gun Department a special chart of progress being kept
for the purpose. For this great achievement the Company received a
special letter of congratulation from the Ministry of Munitions, which
in their turn they passed on to their men, who had so magnificently
responded to the calls of their country in the crisis, and also to the
firms who had rendered such able assistance.
Another very large contract, carried out by the Cunard Company, was
the manufacture of artillery wheels. This work was distributed between
the Company’s various establishments, the metal work being done by the
Cunard’s Engine Works, and the wood work at the Furnishing Departments
in Liverpool and London; in order to provide the necessary material,
the Company’s timber experts had to make enormous purchases, not only
having to buy complete cargoes, but in many instances, having to buy
the timber before the trees were felled, and it cannot be denied that
the Government was extremely fortunate in having the advantage of their
great experience and wise advice. The metal parts provided consisted
of pipe boxes, nots and naves, all of these being made of manganese
bronze as required by the War Office, and the tyres--the wooden parts
of the wheels being the spokes and felloes. Eleven hundred complete
artillery wheels were thus made, as well as 1,400 sand tyres--a sand
tyre being a contrivance fitted to the rim of the gun wheel in order
to prevent it sinking into mud or sand. The reconstruction of damaged
wheels was undertaken for the War Office by the Cunard Company’s London
works and more than 8,000 wheels were dealt with in this manner.
[Illustration: “CAMPANIA” AS SEAPLANE SHIP]
It is impossible to give a detailed account of the whole of the work
of this nature carried out by the Cunard Company, but a general idea
can be obtained from the following list of some of the most important
contracts carried out at Liverpool.
60 Loading trays for 6 in. shells. These are the trays
which guide the shell into the breech of the gun.
1,200 Dial sight adaptors--to render sights adaptable for
guns of different calibres.
12,000 Copper and leather washers for }
recuperating gear; and } This recuperating gear
} is the mechanism
12,000 Manganese Bronze Rings for } used to bring the
supporting packing leathers } gun into firing position
in recuperating gear attached } again after recoil.
to 6 in. Howitzers. }
5,340 Actuating Nuts and Screws for Brake gear for 13 and
18 pounder Field Guns.
250 Sets of Cables for electing firing gear. This is the gear
attached to 6 in. and 92 in. guns, to enable them
to be fired by electricity.
24 Battery Boxes in connection with above.
500 Sets Rings and Discs protecting obturator. This is a
contrivance in the breech of a gun to prevent
the escape of the gases generated in firing.
35 Steel Crankshafts for the Motor Boats which were used
for chasing submarines.
36 Magazine Barrows for transporting heavy shells from
Magazine to Guns on board H.M. Ships.
160 Breech Rings for 18 pounder guns.
100 Clamp Bearings.
14,912 Shell Nose adaptors for correcting the thread in end
of shell.
20,300 Dummy Shells for 18 pounder Guns. These were used
in training new troops to handle guns and shells.
To complete this contract in 1915 the Cunard
Company bought all the mangle rollers that could
be obtained and converted them into dummy shells.
The Company’s Laundry, which before the war dealt with all the Linen,
etc., from the Company’s steamers, was able during the last few years
to assist many of the Military Hospitals and other institutions in
the district by undertaking their Laundry work; at the same time, of
course, they did whatever work was required for the Company’s ships and
those under their management, whether acting as troop ships or hospital
ships.
[Illustration: A HOSPITAL WARD IN THE LOUNGE OF THE “MAURETANIA”]
Nor did these activities exhaust the long list of the Cunard Company’s
manifold contributions to the Nation’s improvised war industries.
In 1916, realising the urgent need for aeroplanes, the Company’s
Directors made certain suggestions to the Government, and placed their
services at the Government’s disposal in this connexion. After some
months consideration a definite scheme was formulated in July, 1917,
providing for the erection of a factory at the Government’s expense,
to be under the supervision of the Cunard Company, who would act as
Managers under the Direction of the Ministry of Munitions. A site was
selected near the race course at Aintree, the first sod was removed on
the 4th October, 1917, and within less than nine months the factory
was completed, many of the shops having been working at full pressure
very much earlier than this. Although the Cunard Company had had no
experience of aircraft work, and could not, of course, spare sufficient
staff to man the factory, the arrangement of the various shops, and
the selection of the machinery to be installed rested in their hands,
and a certain number of the Company’s own officials were subsequently
employed there.
Even under normal conditions, the construction and fitting out of
this the largest aeroplane factory in the country would have been a
herculean task, but in war time, with the resultant difficulties to
be encountered in obtaining the necessary material, the undertaking
might well have baffled even the most enterprising brains. That it was
accomplished at all is, perhaps, the best proof of the enormous reserve
of initiative and capability that had been accumulated by the Company
during the long years of its previous expansion; and some idea of what
was achieved can perhaps be more easily obtained when it is remembered
that the largest shop measured not less than 700 by 500 feet, and that
there were several other shops each of which were about half this size;
that for the necessary electrical power a cable had to be laid for a
distance of six miles from the Lister Drive generating station; that,
the local water and gas supply being totally inadequate, a supply well
had to be sunk to a depth of 370 feet, thus providing the factory’s own
water supply; that a special gas main had to be laid for a considerable
distance; that a new siding from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
had to be constructed, the line running right into the factory’s
grounds; that the machinery and equipment had to be assembled not only
from every part of the United Kingdom, but from the United States of
America; that several of the most essential machines, which had been
specially made, were lost in transit owing to the action of enemy
submarines, so that new machines had to be made in their place; and
that a canteen had to be provided, fully equipped with the latest
cooking utensils and labour saving devices, which would accommodate at
two sittings no less than 5,000 people.
[Illustration: THE “AQUITANIA’S” LOUNGE (Once a hospital ward, it was
used subsequent to the Armistice as an orderly room)]
[Illustration: OFFICERS’ WARD IN THE SMOKING ROOM OF THE “AQUITANIA”]
In spite of all this, however, the first complete aeroplane was turned
out on June 7th, 1918, just eight months after the commencement, while
within four or five months after this, the factory was in a position to
turn out no less than 100 aeroplanes a month. Before this, however, the
Ministry of Munitions had appointed a controller of National Aircraft
Factories, so that on the 17th of October, 1918, the factory was handed
over to the Government in full working order, another concrete instance
of the organising skill and versatility of this great Mercantile Marine
Company.
Long before this the Cunard Company had embarked upon yet another
subsidiary enterprise in the establishment of a factory for the
manufacture of shells. This factory, which came to be known as the
Cunard National Shell Factory, was established at Bootle, the building
having before been used as a store for the fittings and furniture taken
from such of the Cunard Company’s vessels as had been used as armed
cruisers and in various other capacities. A new floor was built and
the roof trusses were strengthened in order to carry shafting. Most
of the lathes and other machine tools installed in the factory were
of the type suitable for marine work, and therefore, special fittings
were necessary in order to convert them into lathes suitable for the
production of 4 in., 5 in., 6 in. and 8 in. shells; and these special
fittings were designed and made by the Cunard’s Staff Engineers. The
boring bars used for the 8 in. shells were made from the piston rods
of the old Cunard liner _Lucania_, sister ship to the _Campania_, the
vessel, as we have seen, on which Signor Marconi carried out some of
his most important wireless experiments. The ingenuity displayed in
this won a tribute of admiration from all the engineering experts who
were brought in touch with it; and the proof of their success is to
be found in the fact that the shells, ranging up to 6 in. and 8 in.
diameter, were entirely completed by female labour.
The Cunard National Shell Factory was, indeed, the first factory in
Great Britain to produce 6 in. and 8 in. shells with female labour,
and was thus the pioneer in the employment of women on shells of large
calibre. In order that the women might be able to handle these heavy
shells great attention had, of course, to be paid to the lifting
appliances; and it may, perhaps, here be mentioned that one of the
women operators worked throughout the whole period from October,
1915, to November, 1918, without the loss of a single minute of time,
probably creating a record. To this factory also several of the retired
engineering officers of the Cunard Company’s ships returned to work in
order to assist their country in increasing the output of shells, while
the factory was self-contained in that it manufactured all its own
tools, jigs, and other necessary appliances.
In this factory work was continuous, being carried out in three shifts,
one working from seven in the morning till three in the afternoon, the
next from three in the afternoon till ten at night, and the third from
ten p.m. until seven next morning; while on Saturdays one shift worked
from seven a.m. till noon, and another from noon till five p.m.
In 1916 the Bottle Nosing Plant for the large shells was instituted--a
plant that turned out to be a great success, while at the same time a
system for the mixing of gas and air to enable a furnace temperature
of 1,400 degrees centigrade to be maintained was also installed--a
contrivance that resulted in a very considerable saving both in upkeep
and expenditure.
On an average about 1,000 people were employed in this factory, of
whom 80 to 90 per cent. were women. The factory contained excellent
kitchens and dining rooms, so that hot meals could be served both for
the day and night shifts. The welfare of the workers was scrupulously
attended to; and a recreation room fitted with a theatrical stage and
all accessories was very popular with the workers in their spare time.
[Illustration: MEN’S WARD IN THE LOUNGE OF THE “AQUITANIA”]
When on November 11th, 1918, hostilities ceased, upon the acceptance
by the enemy of the Armistice terms, work on shell production was
stopped. The factory being closed down on Saturday, November 16th,
each operator was presented on leaving with a 4·5 in. shell as a
souvenir, together with a letter of appreciation signed by the Chairman
and General Manager of the Company. A total of 410,302 shells of
various calibres was turned out during the months through which the
factory worked. Out of every 500 shells made, one was selected by the
Government to be fired as a test, and of the shells manufactured at the
Cunard Factory not a single one failed to pass.
Lastly should be mentioned one of the most beneficent minor activities
initiated by the Cunard Staff in the provision of entertainments for
wounded soldiers. It was in 1916, after the Company moved into their
great new building, that the staff first approached the Management with
a view to obtaining permission to hold a concert for wounded soldiers
in one of the new and spacious rooms. The suggestion was readily agreed
to, and the Company undertook to bear the cost, the staff doing the
work. So successful was this concert that a second entertainment was
given, this being followed by a third, until these concerts became a
regular institution through the winters of 1916–1917, 1917–1918, and
1918–1919. In all about 20 concerts were given, at which more than
7,000 wounded soldiers were entertained and provided with refreshment.
A first-class orchestra of 20 performers was created, as well as a
chorus that would have done credit to any London stage; and it is safe
to say that these Cunard concerts were eagerly looked forward to by
every Military Hospital in the district.
During the summer months also the Company lent their tender, the
_Skirmisher_, for river cruises; and more than 6,400 wounded men were
thus provided with yet another means of recreation. A similar trip
was organised in 1918 by the Cunard Company’s Bristol Staff, while
the Liverpool Office Concert Party was indefatigable in attending
at various hospitals, munition works, and camps in order to provide
additional entertainment to their wounded brothers. The Britannia Rooms
were also used for dances and receptions for American Officers and
American Red Cross Units, and when on Independence Day, July 4th, 1918,
the Lord Mayor of Liverpool entertained 4,000 American Troops, the
whole of the catering arrangements were carried out by the Cunard line.
Now to have initiated, organised, and won success in departments of
service so various and vital would not, of course, have been possible
without the unanimous and unremitting personal devotion of every
Director and member of this great Company; and it cannot be denied that
the Government paid them the compliment of using their activities to
the very highest degree. The Chairman, Sir Alfred Booth, in addition
to the enormous responsibilities resting upon him in virtue of his
executive position, acted also as Chairman of the North Atlantic
Committee, appointed under the Liner Requisitioning Scheme, while he
also served on several Royal Commissions dealing with questions of
urgent national importance in relation to reconstruction and other
post-war problems; and, at the same time, he had many calls upon him
owing to his connexion with the Employers’ Federation, the War Risks,
and Liverpool Steam Ship Owners’ Associations.
The Deputy Chairman, Sir Thomas Royden, acted as Deputy Shipping
Controller, where his wide experience of shipping affairs was
invaluable, Sir Thomas being frequently entrusted with foreign missions
requiring the greatest tact and ability. Early in the war he went to
Mudros in order to organise the transport arrangements in connexion
with the Gallipoli campaign, and at a later date he was in Washington
discussing the international shipping problems that arose when the
United States cast her lot with the Allies. He organised the shipment
of American and Colonial troops to the various theatres of war, and was
selected to represent the Shipping Controller on the Peace Conference.
Sir Percy Bates, Sir Aubrey Brocklebank, and Mr. Walter Tyser all
occupied administrative positions at the Ministry of Shipping, and Mr.
A. C. F. Henderson was selected to represent the Ministry at one of
the chief Mediterranean ports. Sir Ashley Sparks, one of the Company’s
Directors, and its New York Agent, was appointed direct representative
of the Ministry of Shipping at Washington, soon after the United States
came into the war, and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the
British Empire in January, 1919, in recognition of his great services.
No less responsible and intricate were the duties devolving upon the
General Manager, Mr. A. D. Mearns, and the other managers, Mr. S. J.
Lister and Mr. F. Litchfield--Mr. Mearns being elected to a seat on
the Board of Directors in 1918.
[Illustration: THE “FRANCONIA” SINKING, WATCHED BY SURVIVORS FROM THE
BOATS]
Many of the Company’s officials and technical experts were frequently
called upon to render assistance to various Government Departments,
and it is deeply to be regretted that the Cunard Company’s loved and
respected Marine Superintendent, Captain G. H. Dodd, lost his life at
sea through a torpedo attack whilst on an important Government mission.
We have already referred to the mobilisation on the outbreak of war of
a very large proportion of the Company’s navigating officers, and it
is estimated that at least 1,500 sailors, firemen, and stewards joined
the colours, of whom 88 were killed or drowned. Nor was the clerical
staff behind them in its eagerness to serve the country in a combatant
capacity. When a brigade of business men was formed in Liverpool, in
1914, not less than 120 Cunarders from the Liverpool staffs enlisted on
the first day, while from the clerical staffs alone of the principal
Cunard Offices in Great Britain, 387 men joined the Army, besides 65
who joined from the Canadian and American Offices--a total of 452. Of
these 53 lost their lives in the service of their country, while a
large proportion received more or less serious wounds, several being
permanently disabled.
Many distinctions and honours were gained both on the field of battle
and at sea, to be engraved upon the Company’s records as one of their
proudest trophies. They include a Victoria Cross and, in numerous
cases, the D.S.O., D.S.C., M.C., M.M., etc. Various members of the
staff have received other British, and also French, Belgian, Russian
and United States, decorations and medals.
Such then in brief were the war activities of one of our chief
Mercantile Marine Companies, and it is surely a record of which the
whole Empire, not less than every member and employee of the Cunard
Company itself, may well be proud. In the study of it we have perhaps
been able to perceive, as in a wider survey of a larger number of
units might have been less possible, something of the peculiar genius
for organisation and adaptation that, in spite of so much ignorant
criticism, our race possesses. It is at any rate an indication that the
sea instinct that has been our inheritance for so many centuries is as
strong to-day as ever, and a happy augury for the future of a country,
whose very breath of life depends upon its maintenance of Admiralty, in
the widest sense of the word.
Thos. Forman & Sons, Printers,
Nottingham, Liverpool, London
[Illustration: MAP SHEWING PRINCIPAL ROUTES SET BY CUNARD SHIPS DURING
THE WAR]
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
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