British ocean liner in service 1938?1965
RMS
Mauretania
was a
British
ocean liner
that was launched on 28 July 1938 at the
Cammell Laird
yard in
Birkenhead
, England, and was completed in May 1939. She was one of the first ships built for the newly formed
Cunard-White Star
company following the merger in April 1934 of the
Cunard
and
White Star Line
. On the withdrawal of the first
Mauretania
in 1935, to prevent a rival company using the name and to keep it available for the new liner, arrangements were made for the
Red Funnel
paddle steamer
Queen
to be renamed
Mauretania
in the interim.
[2]
The new liner was assessed at 35,739
gross register tons
, with an overall length of 772 feet (235 m) and a beam of 89 feet (27 m)
[1]
and had an exterior design similar to
Queen Elizabeth
. The vessel was powered by two sets of Parsons single reduction-geared
steam turbines
giving 42,000
shaft horsepower
(31,000 kW) and driving twin propellers.
[
citation needed
]
Her service speed was 23 knots (43 km/h)
[1]
with a maximum speed of 26
knots
(48 km/h).
[
citation needed
]
Design and construction (1937?1939)
[
edit
]
The second
Mauretania
was built by
Cammell Laird
of
Birkenhead
and was the largest ship built in England at that time. She was also the second new ship delivered to the combined
Cunard-White Star Line
.
Mauretania
was laid down on 24 May 1937 as Yard Number 1029. This new medium-sized Cunarder was launched on 28 July 1938 by Mary Bates, wife of the Cunard White Star chairman
Percy Bates
.
This is a red letter day, not only for me but for Merseyside. The launch of the largest ship that has ever been built in England. I hope that like her namesake she may work her way into the affections of all who have to do with her on both sides of the Atlantic. To the ship and all who serve or sail in her I wish all good fortune. I name you
Mauretania
.
?
Lady Bates at the launch ceremony, 28 July 1938
The ship was named
Mauretania
to honour the previous
record breaking ocean liner
which had been retired in 1935.
[1]
The ship was designed for the London to New York City service and was the largest vessel ever to navigate the
River Thames
and use the
Royal Docks
. She was also intended to stand in for one of the Cunard Queens when they were undergoing maintenance.
The new
Mauretania
'
s smart and stylish accommodation marked a further enhancement to the standards of cabins, public rooms and general facilities provided for passengers of all grades by Cunard White Star Line.
World War II (1939?1947)
[
edit
]
Mauretania
sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 17 June 1939 under the command of Captain
Arthur Tillotson Brown
[
citation needed
]
(who had delivered the previous
Mauretania
to the shipbreakers), after remaining in New York for a week she returned to Southampton via Cherbourg on Friday, 30 June 1939. Like
RMS
Aquitania
, 25 years before,
Mauretania
was to experience only the briefest period of commercial operation before the outbreak of hostilities halted this work for over six years. Returning from the next voyage,
Mauretania
called at Southampton,
[1]
Le Havre
and finally
London
where she berthed in the
King George V Dock
. From August she was switched to the London- New York service for which she was intended. Here she supplemented
Britannic
and
Georgic
on the London to New York service.
[3]
On 11 August 1939 she left on her final prewar voyage to New York. She began her return voyage on September 30, and on October 2 the German English-language radio broadcast from Hamburg issued a veiled threat against her.
[4]
On her return she was requisitioned by the government.
Mauretania
was armed with two 6-inch (152 mm) guns and some smaller weapons, painted in battle grey, and then despatched to America at the end of December 1939.
For three months the ship lay idle in New York, docked alongside
RMS
Queen Elizabeth
,
RMS
Queen Mary
, and the
French Line
's
SS
Normandie
,
[1]
until it was decided to use her as a
troopship
. On 20 March 1940 she sailed from New York to
Sydney
, via
Panama
, to be converted for her new role.
[1]
This conversion work was carried out in April and in May she left Sydney as part of one of the greatest convoys ever mustered for the transport of troops. With her were
Queen Mary
,
Queen Elizabeth
, and
Aquitania
, with 2,000 troops, bound for the
River Clyde
via South Africa.
[
citation needed
]
Other notable liners in this great convoy were
RMS
Empress of Britain
,
RMS
Empress of Canada
,
RMS
Empress of Asia
, and
SS
Nieuw Amsterdam
. During the early stages of the war the ship transported Australian troops to Suez, India and Singapore but later she mainly served in the North Atlantic.
[
citation needed
]
In addition she shuttled Italian prisoners of war from the Middle East to South Africa, for internment, after their defeat in North Africa.
[
citation needed
]
Like
Aquitania
, she amassed over 500,000 nautical miles (930,000 km) during the course of her war duties, first crossing of the Indian Ocean, then working the Atlantic with American and Canadian troops and finally serving in the Pacific.
[
citation needed
]
One of her wartime voyages, of 28,662 nautical miles (53,082 km), took her right around the world, taking 82 days to complete.
[
citation needed
]
During this epic voyage she established a speed record for the crossing time from
Fremantle
, Australia to
Durban
, South Africa.
[
citation needed
]
The 4,000-mile (6,400 km) distance was covered in 8 days and 19 hours at an average speed of 21.06 knots (39.00 km/h). Another wartime troop transport voyage began in New York on 10 May 1943 and ended in
Bombay
on 24 June 1943, with calls en-route at
Trinidad
, Rio de Janeiro,
Cape Town
and
Diego-Suarez
.
[
citation needed
]
On 8 January 1944 she was involved in a minor collision with the American
tanker
Hat Creek
in New York harbour.
[
citation needed
]
During World War II, she travelled 540,000 miles (870,000 km) and carried over 340,000 troops.
[
citation needed
]
Mauretania
was not designed to be an exceptionally fast ship and during six years of war duty, her engines had received little attention but still achieved a turn of speed in 1945 making the passage from Bombay to the UK via the Cape at an average speed of 23.4 knots (43.3 km/h).
[
citation needed
]
After the war's end,
Mauretania
made several further voyages for the government repatriating troops.
[1]
This mainly took the ship to Canada and Singapore. In addition, she made at least one voyage from New Zealand via Australia and South Africa to
Liverpool
. Women and children were crammed ten to a cabin in the bunks used by the troops, while the men were in "dormitories" for sixty, sleeping in hammocks. On that voyage she sailed from Cape Town on 10 September 1945. She was delayed for three days off Liverpool by strong winds, and finally docked on 25 September.
[5]
Mauretania
took the first dedicated sailing of British
war brides
and their children being patriated to Canada to join their husbands, landing at
Pier 21
at
Halifax, Nova Scotia
in February 1946.
On 2 October 1946 she returned to Liverpool, was released from government service and immediately went into
Gladstone Dock
to be reconditioned by
Cammell Laird & Co.
for return to Cunard-White Star service.
[1]
Post-war (1947?1962)
[
edit
]
After a complete overhaul and refurbishment of the interior,
Mauretania
made her first post-war Atlantic crossing to New York City, departing on 26 April 1947. After using
Liverpool
as her home port for the first two voyages she was thereafter based at
Southampton
. Here she acted as the relief ship for
Queen Mary
and
Queen Elizabeth
, standing in on the transatlantic service when one of them was undergoing maintenance.
By this time the London to New York service had been discontinued as
Georgic
, with which she had operated the service was in no fit state to resume passenger duties, while the other partner,
Britannic
, had been transferred to a new Liverpool to New York service. Later that year she began to be used as a
cruise ship
during the winter months to the West Indies and the Caribbean. These so-called 'dollar earning cruises' assisted the shattered British economy. In 1948
Mauretania
was used to return home the
Wright Brothers
historic first aircraft, the 1903
Wright Flyer
, where it had been on loan to the Science Museum since 1928. During the next decade she served on the Southampton to New York route during the summer months and operated on cruises from New York during the winter months. When
Mauretania
was taken in for her annual overhaul at Liverpool in December 1957 the opportunity was taken to fit air conditioning throughout the ship.
Cruising and retirement (1962?1965)
[
edit
]
By 1962,
Mauretania
was facing competition from more modern ships and was beginning to lose money for Cunard Line. In October 1962 the ship was painted pale green, like
Caronia
(the famed Green Goddess), and converted into a cruise ship.
[1]
The passenger accommodation was adjusted to accommodate 406 First class, 364 Cabin class and 357 Tourist class passengers. On 28 March 1963 she began a new Mediterranean service calling at New York, Cannes, Genoa and Naples.
[1]
This was a failure, and by 1964 she was mainly employed cruising from New York to the West Indies.
Mauretania
'
s final voyage was a Mediterranean cruise which left New York on 15 September 1965.
[1]
It was announced that on her return to Southampton,
Mauretania
would be withdrawn from service and sold. She arrived at Southampton on 10 October 1965 and had already been sold to the
British Iron & Steel Corporation
. Leaving Southampton on 20 November for her final voyage, she arrived at
Thos. W. Ward
's
shipbreaking
yard in
Inverkeithing
, Fife, Scotland three days later.
[1]
She was commanded by
Capt. John Treasure Jones
who had been Master since 1962. He navigated the mud straits of the Forth without
tugboats
, and made the final berthing through the shallows above the mud banks on the midnight high tide.
[6]
It is rumoured that on the way to Fife she sailed up the
River Douglas
in Lancashire by mistake and became grounded in the mud banks, but this is unlikely as photographs and footage of the
Mauretania
at Inverkeithing were taken after her arrival. Regardless, scrapping began a few weeks later.
[7]
By late April 1966, her funnels were gone; by mid-1966, the superstructure was removed. Scrapping was finished by late 1966.
Post scrapping
[
edit
]
Furnishings from the ship were sold during and post scrapping. Paneling, mill work, and other materials from the ship were used in the Famous-Barr department store's Mauretania Room at the
West County Center
Mall in Des Peres, Missouri, a suburb of
St Louis
.
The Mauretania Room was a 120-seat luxurious ladies' tea room that opened with the store in 1969.
[8]
The room was removed prior to the demolition and reconstruction of the mall in 2001 to make room for additional shopping as the times changed. The present location of these furnishings is unknown.
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Britton, Andrew (2013).
RMS Mauretania
. Classic Liners series. Stroud, Gloucestershire:
The History Press
.
ISBN
9780752479507
.
- Fricker, Philip J.
Ocean Liners
, Reed's Nautical Books, 1992
- Cruising Ships
, W.H. Mitchell and L.A. Sawyer, Doubleday, 1967
- The Sea My Steed
, by Captain Donald Sorrell. Robert Hale Ltd 1960.
External links
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]
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Current fleet
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Former ships
1840–1994
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For MoWT
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Years indicate year of entry into Cunard service.
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