10: RMS Mauretania
Designed by Leonard Peskett for the British Cunard Line. With a GRT of 31,938 and length of 790ft she was the largest ship in the world at her launch 20 September 1906. She would not be surpassed until the completion of the RMS Olympic in 1911.

She was named after the ancient Roman province of Mauretania, not the nation Mauritania. Her sister ship the Lusitania was also named after a Roman province.

She was powered by 4 direct-action Parsons steam turbines. The first turbine powered battleship of the Royal Navy- HMS Dreadnought also entered service in 1906 and was also powered by turbines from this company.

Her design service speed was 24 knots, but during her speed trials in 1907 she was able to reach 25.73 knots. The vibration caused by her steam turbines at high speeds was so great her propellers had to be redesigned to help reduce vibration before she could enter service.

Designed with speed and opulent luxury in mind, the interior was designed to suit even the most discerning Edwardian eye. The interiors were designed by Harold Peto, who’s better known for his landscaping and garden designs. Here’s some interior shots

She set several speed records starting from her maiden voyage in November 1907. We could talk more about her transatlantic crossings, but if you know me, you know where this thread is going.

DAZZLE CAMOUFLAGE

I’m saving talking in detail about the Mauretania’s service in WWI and what became of her after for something special. But here she is- my 10th favourite.

9. SS Normandie
Although construction didn’t begin until 1931, the Normandie is very much the superstructure love child of the Roaring 20s.

Usually, most people making the transatlantic crossing were 3rd class passengers migrating to the US. However, when the US tightened their migration policy in the 30s, the demographic tilted to the playful rich. Imagine a floating Art Deco burning man- yeah, those kinda people.

So how do you create a vessel that’s equal parts opulent and swift, but is still sturdy enough to handle the might of the Atlantic Ocean? Meet Vladimir Yourkevitch

Yourkevitch a former White Army officer, presented the French line with a design that incorporated a bulbous forefoot beneath the waterline and a slim hydrodynamic hull. Yourkevitch had also approached Cunard, but they deemed the design too radical.

The SS Normandie finally began her sea trials in 1935 and the genius of Yourkevitch’s design could truly be appreciated as the Normandie clocked 32.2knots with a designed service speed of 29.5knots. She could complete the transatlantic crossing in just over 4 days!

The US government interred the SS Normandie on 3 September 1939, on the 12 December 1941 the coast guard took possession of the Normandie. She was renamed to the USS Lafayette and was to be converted into a troop carrier.

Unfortunately on 9 February 1942 she caught fire during her refit. The fire was extinguished, but she capsized in New York Harbour. Plans to salvage her were eventually abandoned and she was scrapped in 1946.

8. RMS Carparthia
The little ship that could. Just 170m in length and 13,555GRT, she was laid down in 1901 and undertook her maiden voyage from Liverpool-Boston in 1903. She mostly serviced Cunard’s large immigrant clientele.

The Carparthia was never constructed with speed & luxury in mind, rather she would reliably convey mostly immigrant passengers to America. A strategy employed by Cunard to remain fiscally solvent & competitive enough to avoid a company takeover in this period.

At her sea trials the Carparthia clocked 15.5knots, her designed service speed was 14knots (remember these numbers). By 1912 she had undergone a refit & now traveled Liverpool-New York (Summer) Trieste-New York (Winter) routes.

One evening in 1912 the wireless operator decided to listen to some transmissions before going to sleep. He passed a message to the RMS Titanic that they had traffic from Massachusetts. He received a distress signal in response. It was 12:11am April 15, the Titanic was sinking.

Captain Arthur Rostron immediately sprung into action. He ordered the ship be readied for a rescue mission, a make shift hospital was set up, food, drink and blankets made ready, and all available spaces ready for survivors.

Captain Rostron also ordered that lifeboats & gangplanks be prepared and he cut hot water & heating so as much steam as possible now went to the engines. The Carparthia was approx 67miles from the Titanic’s distress position. 4 hours away at max speed.

Remember the 15.5 knot top speed earlier? Rostron’s quick thinking meant the Carparthia was now heading to the Titanic at a speed of 18 knots! She made it to the ice shelf at 2:45am navigated past 6 icebergs to reach Titanic’s distress position at 4am.

Though her speed had meant she arrived in 3 hours instead of 4, the Titanic had been lost and over 1500 people with her. The Carparthia spent the next 4 hours rescuing 705 survivors and arrived in New York dangerously overcapacity on 18 April.

What was the RMS Carparthia’s ultimate fate? She served as a troop carrier in WWI often as part of a convoy. On the 17 July 1918 she was torpedoed 3 times by a German U boat and sunk. 218 of the 223 onboard survived.

7. RMS Adriatic
One of White Star Line’s ‘Big 4’ (Cedric, Celtic, Baltic & Adriatic) However at 222.7m she never held the record for the world’s largest ship, it refers to her 24,000GT and service speed of 17knots.

She was launched 20 September 1906- the same day as Cunard’s RMS Mauretania. She undertook her maiden voyage from Liverpool-New York 8 May 1907. She was Captained by Edward Smith, who would go on to Captain the Titanic on her ill fated maiden voyage.

The Adriatic had a long career, serving in WWI with no incident and was eventually refitted and converted to cabin cruise services. She was scrapped in 1935.

She’s # 7 on my list because she was the first ocean liner in history to have a swimming pool and Turkish bath. The latter was a prominent luxury feature of White Star Line’s olympic class liners.

6. Queen Elizabeth 2 aka QE2
By the late 50’s Cunard found the Queen Mary & Elizabeth had become too expensive and inefficient to run the traditional transatlantic route. The QE2 was their replacement

The QE2 was designed to fulfil the duel role of the transatlantic route and more commercially viable cruise routes. Air travel was fast taking precedence as the preferred mode of international transport by this time.

She was laid down in July 1965 and launched 20 September 1967. At 293.5m and 70,327 GT she would hold the record for the world’s largest ocean liner until the Queen Mary 2 was launched in 2004.

She is so large that Cunard’s first ocean liner the RMS Britannia (1840) could actually fit in her Grand Lounge.

She had a max speed of 34knots and a regular service speed of 28.5knots. Interestingly, she could also sail backwards at 20knots. Impressive, but the environmental cost of this is quite horrendous.

She was converted from steam to diesel in 1987 to alleviate some of this. But she still consumed 433 tonnes of fuel a day. One gallon of fuel would move her just 15 metres.

Don’t worry, her passengers consumed a lot too. Approximately 70,000 bottles of champagne were used every year she was in service. Booze cruise, anyone?

Her funnel was initially black and white, this broke with Cunard tradition that began with the Britannia in 1840. However, following her return to passenger service after the Falkland War in 1983 she was repainted the traditional red-orange and black.

She retired from service in 2008, and as of 2018 is now a luxury floating hotel in Dubai. She remains the longest serving ocean liner in history.

5. RMS Lusitania aka the Lucy
The Lusitania was the sister ship of the Mauretania. Cunard first ordered these 2 super liners in 1902. However, they required significant British government financial aid to be built.

The loan the government provided to Cunard would be worth almost £300 million in today’s money. What were the conditions for the loan?

She was to have a service speed of 25knots and would be the first ocean liner over 30,000GT. The Lusitania and Mauretania were to win back the blue riband for the transatlantic crossing, German liners had held the title since 1897. Finally...

The two ships were to be built to naval specifications for requisition in war. Remember when I mentioned that the Mauretania was fitted with the same turbines as the HMS Dreadnought? So was the Lusitania.

I make special mention of this because when the build up of armaments leading to WWI is spoken about in public discourse, there’s rarely mention of how civilian businesses participated and profited from this.

Pre-war, the Lusitania kept her side of the bargain. She won the blue riband on her second crossing and became the first ocean liner to make the crossing in under five days. The Mauretania would later take the riband for the next 20 years.

At the outbreak of the war the British admiralty decided they would requisition the Mauretania, but leave the Lusitania in commercial service. These ships each consumed 910tonnes of coal per day, the cost of using both was simply too much.

Cunard shut down boiler room 4 as a cost saving measure which also reduced her speed to 21knots. She was still the fastest passenger vessel operating in the Atlantic Ocean at the time.

On 4 February 1915, Germany declared the seas surrounding Britain a war zone. Controversially, the captain of the Lusitania raised the neutral American flag to complete her crossing to Liverpool.

Germany was outraged, and President Woodrow Wilson also protested the use of a neutral flag by a British ship.

On 1 May 1915 the following notice from the German embassy appeared in newspapers, placed next to a Cunard advertisement in some publications. The Lusitania departed from New York the same day, prominent passengers received anonymous telegrams warning them not to sail.

On the 7 May 1915 at 2:10pm the Lusitania was 11 miles off the Irish coast when she was torpedoed on her starboard side by by German Uboat U-20. A second explosion occurred within the Lusitania and she began to sink rapidly.

Only 6 of her 48 lifeboats could be launched, and she sank in just 18 minutes. Of the 1,962 on board 1,198 perished. Fast acting Irish boats rescued people from the sea bringing up a total of 764 survivors. 3 of these survivors would die of their injuries.

128 Americans had died in the sinking. News of the sinking caused international outrage. Germany released a lengthy statement defending her actions, here’s a small section.

Unknown to the public, she was carrying 4,200,000 rounds of rifle cartridges, 1,250 empty shell cases, and 18 cases of non-explosive fuses at the time of her sinking.

Her sinking became one of the deciding factors in the US entering the war. Here’s sonar imagery and a photo of her wreck today.

4. RMS Queen Mary
The 20s had brought some tough times upon Cunard, the Great Depression had caused significant financial distress and German and French shipping lines were regaining dominance and prestige over the transatlantic. The Queen Mary was to address this.

She was ordered in 1929, and laid down in 1930. Cunard once again needed a significant loan to finance the venture. Unlike previous Cunard liners the Queen Mary did not bear a name ending in ‘ia’

It’s widely believed that Cunard had originally intended to name her Victoria, but when they asked the king for permission to name her after ‘Britain’s greatest queen’ he replied that his wife would be delighted. King George V- a wife guy.

Cunard’s financial issues didn’t dissipate, in 1934 their assets were merged with White Star Line to form Cunard White Star. Cunard had a controlling 62% share and eventually went on to absorb all of White Star Lines assets eventually buying out the 49% to become Cunard once more

Back to the Queen Mary. She is 310m long with a 80,774GRT, what’s more, she’s fast. A 28.5knot designed service speed, she was able to break 32.84knots at her speed trials. With 4 Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines, and 24 boilers powering her.

At the outbreak of the Second World War she was requisitioned, stripped and painted grey camouflage to serve as a troopship. She was so effective at dodging U-boats she earned the nickname ‘the grey ghost’.

On 2 February 1941 as the HMT Queen Mary she embarked from Sydney-Singapore carrying some personnel of the 8th Division of the 2nd AIF. When they disembarked on 18 February, they did so with a surprise guest.

The 2/19th infantry battalion had decided that they were in need of a mascot. Luckily, they found one at the Bathurst training camp. Some careful liaison work with the crew of the Queen Mary insured a safe journey.

Meet Joey, the mascot of the 2/19th infantry battalion 2nd AIF. This battalion has the highest casualties out of any Australian unit raised in the Second World War. The survivors also became PoW’s until the Japanese surrender.

The Queen Mary also partook in a rather daring record breaking crossing while serving as a troopship. From 25-30 July 1943 she carried the greatest number of people on a vessel ever recorded- 16,683 people. A record she still retains.

The voyage wasn’t smooth sailing either, as well as the threat of German attack, the Queen Mary was hit with a freak wave of 28m. It’s been estimated this caused her to tilt by 52 degrees, at 55 she would have capsized.

The Queen Mary’s contribution to the war effort was so significant that it is said Churchill praised her for helping to shorten the war. Churchill was a passenger of the Queen Mary no less than 6 times.

Post-war the Queen Mary was refitted, but she was too costly and obsolete to run. She was retired in 1967. She’s now a floating hotel in long beach, you can even stay in the Churchill Suite, where it’s rumoured (doubt it)Churchill planned the D-Day landings in the bath tub.

3. RMS Britannic
The third and largest of the Olympic class superliners. As a trio of sister ships the Olympic, Titanic and Britannic would have made White Star Line the undisputed leaders of the transatlantic crossing, if everything had gone to plan.

Her keel was laid down November 1911 at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where her sisters had also been built. She was still under construction when the Titanic sank on her maiden voyage.

The consequent inquiry into the Titanic disaster led to significant changes in the design and construction of ships. Especially for the lifeboats ocean liners were to be equipped with.

The necessary changes were all implemented on the Britannic. She still maintained the Olympic class opulence and niche design features- including the infamous grand staircase, but rather than a clock, she featured a painting.

At 48,158GRT and a length of 269.06m she was launched in February 1914. At her trials she obtained a service speed of 21knots and a max speed of 23knots. She was ready for Transatlantic service by August, but WWI began.

She was initially laid up, but eventually requisitioned and turned into a hospital ship, serving under the designation HMHS Britannic and commenced her service as such in November 1915.

By November 1916 she had made five successful voyages from the Mediterranean theatre of war.

At 8:12am 21 November 1916 a very loud explosion occurred. The Britannic was instantly thrown 33 degrees off course and her stern rose considerably before slamming down fast.

She had struck a mine laid by U-boat U-73 earlier that week. Recognising the situation was dire Captain Bartlett ordered the lifeboats be loaded and the watertight doors be immediately shut. There were enough lifeboats for everyone on board, plus extra.

The evacuation was planned and straightforward. However because of where the mine struck and the portholes being open to ventilate the hospital wards, she was quickly reaching her max flooding capacity to stay afloat.

She had started to tilt towards the stern, in a panic two lifeboats were prematurely launched Without orders from the Portside. The Britannic was in shallow water, only 119m deep, and within site of the coast. Bartlett thought to try and beach the ship.

He ordered the engines be restarted, the propellers began moving very fast and close to the water surface. Creating a sucking effect. The two lifeboats that were prematurely launched were pulled towards this. I will spare further details, but there were some survivors.

The attempt to beach her was futile and Captain Bartlett gave the order to abandon ship. As she was 269m long in 119m of water, her stern actually touched the sea bed while she was sinking.

When informed all had evacuated the ship Bartlett, Commander Dyke and Chief Engineer Fleming simply walked into the sea and made their way to waiting lifeboats.

At this point it’s estimated her bow had risen 45.7m or 150ft in the air. A nurse who served aboard the Britannic explained what the ship’s last moments were like:

That nurse was Violet Jessop. She had served as a stewardess on the Olympic and Titanic escaping the latter sinking on lifeboat 16. She was the only person to serve on all 3 ships, and she returned to work for White Star Line in 1920.

The Britannic sank in just 55 minutes! But remarkably of the 1,066 on board only 30 lives were lost- from the two prematurely launched lifeboats. There were no patients on board at the time which made evacuation easier.

Today the Britannic rests on her starboard side at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. She is a war grave, but permission can be obtained to visit the wreck site. She is the largest ocean liner to have ever sunk in history.

2. RMS Aquitania ‘ship beautiful’
White Star Line’s Olympic Class liners were larger & more luxurious than Cunard’s express super liners- Mauretania & Lusitania. The Aquitania was Cunard’s solution.

Why weren’t the Mauretania & Lusitania seen as luxurious as White Star Line ships? A lot of the answer comes down to their power & speed. The vibration mentioned earlier when discussing these super liners was never fully remedied, they were also prone to lurching.

Though she wouldn’t be as fast as her running mates, the Mauretania & Lusitania, she was larger and she’d still be fast enough to allow Cunard to offer a weekly transatlantic passage with the 3 super liners in play.

She was named after the Roman province Gallia Aquitania, her running mates Mauretania & Lusitania also were named for ancient Roman provinces She was launched 21 April 1913, at 45,647GRT & a length of 274.6m. She had a designed service speed of 23knots and a max speed of 24knots

Her maiden voyage from Liverpool- New York took place 30 May- 5 June 1914. She’d made the transatlantic crossing 6 times (3 round trips) when WWI broke out.

Initially she was laid up next to her running mate the Mauretania while the admiralty decided how they would use the ships. Despite being the largest, the Aquitania used the least amount of coal.

It was eventually decided the Lusitania would stay in commercial service, the Mauretania would be a troopship, and the Aquitania was converted into an armed merchant cruiser.

The Aquitania collided with another liner on the 22 August 1914. The Admiralty decided the large super liners weren’t suitable as cruisers, the Aquitania was withdrawn on 30 September to await a new refit.

She was recalled by the admiralty in Spring of 1915 and began service in the Gallipoli Campaign. In August 1915 she was converted to a hospital ship for the same campaign. In 1916 she returned to troopship service.

At the end of the war she repatriated Canadian troops. In December 1918 she was dismissed from service and underwent a significant post-war refit, including conversion from coal to oil burning.

She underwent yet another refit in the interwar years, which included a cinema as Cunard’s clientele had shifted away from immigrants to affluent leisure seekers as the majority passenger demographic.

With the Queen Mary and the forthcoming Queen Elizabeth to appear in service in 1940 it was speculated the Aquitania would soon retire. But her performance continued to satisfy Cunard, and in any case WWII broke out on 1 September 1939.

The Aquitania was again requisitioned and refitted to serve as a troopship. She would remain in military service until 1948. During her WWII service she carried almost 400,000 troops in 8 years over a total distance of over 500,000miles.

After being handed back to Cunard for commercial service she worked to transport war brides and their children to their new home, always disembarking in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Upon completion of these passages the Aquitania was withdrawn from service in 1949. The ship had significantly deteriorated and bringing her back up to safety standards would be too costly. She was sold for scrap in 1950.

She carried 1.2 million passengers over a career of 36 years and was the largest commercial vessel to serve in both world wars. It took a full year to dismantle her, she was the last of the 4 funnel ocean liners

1. RMS Olympic “old reliable”
The largest ship in the world at her launch, the loss of her sister ships, a mutiny, an attack on a U-Boat, and multiple collisions. Meet the Titanic’s cool older sister

The Olympic Class liners would be a trio of ships from White Star Line to outclass Cunard’s Mauretania & Lusitania. The Olympic was to be the first and smallest of the trio to enter service.

Her keel was laid in 1908, launched 20 October 1910 and she began her maiden voyage 14 June 1911. At 269.1m & 45,324GRT she was the largest ship in the world, eclipsed briefly by the Titanic, she the regained the title until 1913.

On her 5th voyage she collided with the British cruiser HMS Hawke. Both ships needed extensive repairs before being able to sail again. The Olympic was captained by Edward Smith at the time.

The Olympic left New York bound for Southampton 13 April 1912. She received distress signals from her sister the Titanic late at night on the 14th, but Captain Haddock didn’t realise until 1am on the 15th how grave the situation was.

The Olympic was 500miles from the Titanic’s position (a full day’s sailing), but Haddock reassured the Titanic’s wireless operators he was charting a new course to her position to assist in the rescue at full speed.

The Titanic foundered at 2:20am, at 9am she received word from the Carparthia that all lifeboats were accounted for and the survivors had been taken aboard.

The Olympic offered to take survivors but Captain Rostron of the Carparthia refused by order of J. Bruce Ismay. The Olympic was only 3in shorter than the Titanic with near identical features, it was believed seeing her would traumatise survivors.

The Olympic continued on her original course arriving at Southampton on 21 April 1912. The results of the inquiry into the Titanic disaster led to a revision of safety standards for ocean liners, and the Olympic had extensive changes made.

Towards the end of April the Olympic experienced a mutiny when 284 of the ships firemen went on strike believing the lifeboats weren’t sea worthy. 54 sailors also left the boat in protest of scab labour being used. They were arrested for mutiny.

She also had interior changes at this time, which made her appear even more like the Titanic. The Olympic was painted grey, her deck lights switched off, and her portholes sealed so she could continue making voyages when WWI broke out.

On her final commercial voyage in October 1914 she assisted in rescuing crew from the HMS Audacious. The Olympic & her passengers were kept in custody to suppress news of the sinking.

White Star Line planned to keep the Olympic laid up until the end of the war. But the Admiralty requisitioned her to be a troopship in May 1915, her sister ship the Britannic was converted to a hospital ship, she sank in 1916.

On the 12 May 1918, the Olympic spotted the surfaced U-Boat U103. The Olympic turned her guns on U103, turned a parallel course and rammed the Uboat. The crew of U103 scuttled & abandoned the sub.

The Olympic carried an estimated 201,000 service personnel and burned 370,000 tonnes of coal to travel approx 184,000 miles during her war service. Earning herself the nickname ‘old reliable’

Post-war the Olympic was lacking running mates as her two sister ships had been lost. The German liners SS Bismarck & Columbus were added to White Star Line as war reparations & were renamed Majestic & Homeric. The Olympic was in a trio once more.

The tightening of US migration laws and the Great Depression severely impacted White Star Line, and she merged with Cunard in 1934. It was likely the Olympic wouldn’t be in service for much longer.

On 15 May 1934 the Olympic stuck the lightship Nantucket on her way to New York Harbour. 7 of the 11 crew perished in the incident, the Olympic rescued the survivors.

She left New York for the last time 5 April 1935. On her return she was laid up for 5 months until she was sold for scrap. Her superstructure was demolished in Jarrow, her hull was towed to Inverkeithing and demolished in 1937. The Olympic was no more.

I’ll finish this thread with a picture of the Olympic laid up with the Mauretania prior to their scrapping. My 10th and 1st ships in this thread.