At the turn of century the single biggest threat to the continuation of Cunard’s very existence occurred with the arrival of Junius Pierpoint Morgan who at the time was considered to be the most powerful of the rail, oil, steel and meat packing tycoons, referred to collectively as the ‘Robber Barons’. At this juncture American goods carried in American ships had fallen to an all time low accounting for only twelve per cent of production. Pierpoint’s dream was a through bill of lading whereby goods produced in Europe were not only shipped in his vessels but were transported from their port of arrival by American owned railway company’s to their city’s of destination, thus creating a monopoly. He also wished for an American owned ship to sail every day of the week and instead of having to book in advance all one had to do was arrive at ones port of embarkation and board whatever ship was available.  JUNIUS (JOHN) PIERPOINT MORGAN 1873-1913. Morgan’s first move was to buy the only two American shipping company’s of any consequence, the International Navigation Company and the American Transport Company. In 1901 he ventured abroad for his acquisitions buying Red Star Line, Leyland Line and Dominion Line before surprising the entire nautical world by purchasing the great White Star Line, the foundations of his International Mercantile Marine Company had been well and truly laid. Undoubtedly the German shipping mogul Albert Ballin was instrumental in mediating in many of Morgan’s purchases and after a two day meeting with the Kaiser Albert Ballin committed HAPAG to the combine. The terms of the merger decreed that the I.M.M would guarantee HAPAG a six per cent dividend on their capital in return for a share of any dividend HAPAG paid which exceeded this figure. Ballin shrewdly thought that he had made the best call, however his mathematics failed to take into account boom and gloom and in the event HAPAG finished up paying I.M.M. some one and a half million marks between 1903 to 1911, this represented on average a dividend of 7.5 per cent, Morgan hadn’t attained his nom de plume by making mistakes of such magnitude. On conclusion of the deal Morgan visited Germany aboard his own small ocean liner Corsair, was lauded by the German press and had an audience with the Kaiser himself. Such was the enmity between Great Britain and Germany that Berlins National Zeitung declared “The blow to England is all the greater since the German company’s have been able to keep out of the trust and maintain their independence.”  ALBERT BALLIN 1857-1919. Cunard’s response was sheer genius in its simplicity, effectively sit back and do nothing in the anticipated knowledge that the British Government would come to their rescue. In this they were not to be disappointed, both parties concluded a twenty year agreement whereby Cunard was to remain British owned and a loan for £2.6 million was granted at the favourable rate of two and three quarter per cent to build two new ships. This was further enhanced by a £150,000 a year subsidy for the running of the two ships; needless to say the Admiralty had its usual say as to design and specifications. During the same year, 1903, Cunard completed one of its most famous ships, Carpathia, though her fame was somewhat tempered by the circumstances, the loss of Titanic. CARPATHIA  Built: 1903 by C.S. Swan & Hunter, Newcastle. Tonnage: 13,603 grt, 8,660 nt. Engines: Twin screw, 2 x 4 Quadruple expansion, 1,341 NHP, 17 Knots by Wallsend Slipway Co., Newcastle. Passengers: 204 2nd Class, 1,500 3rd Class, a third accommodated in cabins the remainder in dormitory style accommodation. She made her maiden voyage Liverpool-Cobh-Boston on the 5th of May 1903 and in March of the following year transferred to the New York-Mediterranean service. In September of 1905 she joined Ultonia and Saxonia on the New York-Funchal-Gibraltar-Naples-Palermo-Messina-Fiume service with occasional calls at the Azores and Lisbon. On the night of the 14th of April 1912 she was directed by Captain Rostron to go to the assistance of White Star’s Titanic which had struck an iceberg in a position, latitude 41°46 North, Long 50°14 West. Initially Phillips, the wireless operator on duty aboard Titanic had sent the repeated message CQD followed by their call sign MGY. His good fortune was that his friend, Harold Cottam, on duty aboard Carpathia, who should have shut his radio down was waiting for the passenger traffic to slow down so he could have a chat with his associate. After achieving contact and hearing the letter ‘K’ the international go-ahead signal no one was more surprised than Harold when after tapping out GMOM (Good morning old man) he heard the response “CDQ CQD SOS SOS CQD SOS. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg. CQD OM position 41.46N. 50.14W. CQD SOS.” Carpathia which had been steaming westwards carrying a few American tourists and a lot of emigrants returning home on visits out of New York immediately turned, opened up to achieve a maximum speed two knots over her norm of fourteen knots, ignored the ice packs and sped to Captain Smith’s charges that were located some fifty eight miles away. Carpathia arrived on the tragic scene at 4am and was able to rescue 703 of the 850 passengers and crew that had left the Titanic in her lifeboats; she later landed the survivors at New York. Carpathia eventually became a victim herself on the 17th of July 1918 when she was struck by three torpedoes 170 miles west of Bishops Rock, five stokehold hands were killed immediately but the remaining 215 onboard were rescued by the escort HMS Snowdrop. Cunard also purchased two ships on the stocks in 1903 for its Fiume service; the John Brown built Pannonia, which had been laid down for Sir Christopher Furness and British India’s Yamuna, which became Slavonia and completed at James Laing’s yard, Sunderland. In the November Aurania commenced the company’s new service to Fiume-Trieste-Venice-Palermo-New York. The Pretty Sisters. Cunard’s answer to the threat posed by Morgan’s I.M.M. was to design and build what were to become known as ‘The Pretty Sisters”, Caronia and Carmania, both ships were to serve yet another purpose for her designers, to test the power of quadruple expansion against that of turbines the winner of which would be installed in Cunard’s next generation of ships. First of the stocks was the quadruple expansion powered Caronia from the yard of John Brown of Glasgow. CARONIA.  Built: 1905 by John Brown & Co, Glasgow. Tonnage: 19,687 grt, 10,306 nt. Engines: Twin screw, 2 x 4 Quadruple expansion, 3,353 NHP, 18 Knots by builder. She achieved 19.62 Kts on trials. On an average round trip Liverpool-New York Caronia consumed 5,000 Tons of coal Passengers: 300 1st Class, 350 2nd Class, 2,000 3rd Class, Crew 710. Caronia made her maiden voyage Liverpool to New York on the 25th of February 1905. Amongst notable Cunard firsts are the fact that she was the largest ship to date, the first to be fitted with Stone-Lloyd bridge remote controlled watertight doors and the first to carry an all professional orchestra, sadly she was also the first ship to contact White Star’s Titanic to warn her of the ice flows. Both Caronia and her sister Carmania had radio fitted as standard equipment that had undergone satisfactory trials onboard Lucania.. The importance of radio in an emergency was exemplified on the 3rd of March 1899 when the East Goodwin Light vessel was rammed in thick fog by a steamer, her distress signal was received ashore and she was towed to safety by tugs initiated by the shore station at South Foreland, this was the first distress signal ever sent. The first transatlantic liner to be so equipped was the German SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Thanks to twentieth century technology she was also fitted with the “new fangled loudspeaking telephones with brass fittings”, these were situated for’d and aft to the bridge for manoeuvring and also from bridge to engine room. However due to distortion they were often unintelligible with the Captain having to resort to the bullhorn during docking and undocking. As well as the bridge telegraphs Caronia had docking telegraphs fitted both fore and aft, which enabled the Captain to relay his commands without the possibility of confusion. The for’d telegraph was marked with Stand By Anchors, Let Go Anchor (Port/Starboard or both) and Slow Ahead and Slow Astern used by the officer for’d to indicate to the Bridge when manoeuvring at docking. The aft telegraph was marked with Let Go Lifebuoy, Man Overboard, Cast off Moorings and Make Tugs Fast. John Brinnin’s book also makes the point that she was only fitted with forty lifeboats each capable of carrying only forty people giving a maximum lift of only 1,600 persons when if fact her total compliment including crew was in the region of 3,360. Mr Brinnin’s point appears to be that of other maritime historians that the single biggest contribution to loss of life on ships of the period is only divisible by the number of lifeboats carried which is clearly not the case, most site the Titanic as an example. In her case design was of course the largest factor, closely followed by number of crew available for lowering the boats and of equal importance if not more so was the fact that of all the boats that were successfully launched all stood off as the vast majority of passengers drowned when carrying nowhere near their capacity. Anyway, my apologies for digressing. Along with her sister she entered service as an Armed Merchant Cruiser in 1914 and served as such throughout the war only returning on her more accustomed civilian role on the 11th of January 1919. She underwent conversion to oil fuel in 1920 and two years later was placed on the Hamburg-Southampton-New York run. Considered unsuitable she reverted to the Liverpool service in 1923. In 1924 she underwent an extensive refit altering her passenger accommodation to 425 Cabin Class, 365 Tourist Class and 650 3rd Class. Placed on the London-Southampton-Le Havre-New York route in 1926 she remained as such until being laid up in the reserve fleet before being sold for breaking to Hughes Bolckow for £20,000 in 1931. She was sold on again the following year for £39,000 to Japanese breakers and made her final voyage as Taiseiyo Maru, work commenced in 1933. CARMANIA  Built: 1905 by John Brown & Co, Glasgow. Tonnage: 19,524 grt, 9,982 nt. Engine: Triple screw, 3 x Direct action turbines by Parsons, first fitted for Atlantic service in Allan Lines Victorian, 20.4 Trials, 18.5 service, a half knot faster than her sister. Passengers: 300 1st Class, 350 2nd Class, 2,000 3rd Class. Caronia and Carmania were not designed for speed; more for luxury, comfort and quality and throughout their service life developed a sizeable, loyal clientele. Carmania made her maiden voyage Liverpool-New York on the 2nd of December 1905. She caught fire when in Liverpool but was not seriously damaged on the 4th of June 1912. The following year on the 9th of October she went to the aid of the Volturno, owned by the Uranium Steamship Company, itself controlled by Canadian Northern Steamships Ltd. Volturno had sailed from Rotterdam on the 2nd of October 1913 with a mixed general cargo of oil, gin, wine, burlap, peat moss, straw bottle covers, rags, barium and various other chemicals, given a choice no Captain whatsoever would have accepted such an inflammable combination of cargo.  VOLTURNO. To add to his problems he carried 564 emigrants of Polish, Russian and east European Jews, his crew comprised ninety-three officers and ratings. After seven uneventful days a fire was discovered in a for’d hold at 0655 hrs on the ninth when roughly half way across the Atlantic. Captain Inch immediately ordered the distress signal to be transmitted and along with 2nd Officer Lloyd decided to cut access into the hold by way of the covers. On playing the fire hose into the hold both he and Mr Lloyd were thrown twenty feet along the deck by the resulting explosion, which blew off all the hatch covers, having recovered the Captains next instinct was to flood the hold. Due to the severe weather conditions prevalent at the time he prudently decided not to, however his next order, made under duress due to rapid growth of the fire, to turn out his lifeboats must have caused him much concern. By the time his passengers and crew had been issued their lifebelts the flames were leaping forty feet into the air and to add to their woes a second explosion occurred which destroyed the compass, damaged the steering gear, engine room telegraph and set on fire life rafts adjacent to the foremast. Transmission of the ships SOS was also interrupted when the rope stays to the aerial caught fire and were only reinstated when Mr Lloyd climb the mast and re-secured them. Unfortunately for the 2nd Officer he fell twelve feet to the deck as he descended when overcome by fumes and was knocked unconscious. The Captain by then was left with no other option but to order abandon ship and as the passengers rushed the lifeboats they had to be clubbed back by the crew to restore some semblance of order. Due to standards of behaviour prevalent at the time the first boat lowered contained twenty two of the twenty four first class passengers, the chief steward, a quartermaster, the ships stewardesses and was in the charge of the chief officer. On impact with the sea the boat capsized throwing its occupants overboard, only the chief officer, chief steward and quartermaster were seen to re-board the righted lifeboat which then drifted away in the gale never to be seen again. The second boat launched, with the fourth officer in charge initially proved to be a success, unfortunately it drifted away and neither it nor its occupants were ever seen again either. The third lifeboat away was just as unsuccessful when it was driven under the stern and its occupants crushed to death when the counter smashed down on it due to the heavy sea. By now the panicking passengers were joined by certain elements of the crew and but for the intervention of pistol wielding officers would have run riot which subsequently would have no doubt led to a greater loss of life. Yet another badly overloaded boat was launched, it too was to disappear bringing the total of boats launched and lost to six, passengers and crew one hundred and twenty, a truly terrible state of affairs. At this juncture, with the sure knowledge that Carmania was on her way, Volturno’s Captain called a halt to any further boat launches. On receipt of the SOS Carmania, then lying some seventy eight miles away, closed in on the safety valves, piled on the coal and raised her speed from sixteen knots, reduced by the storm, to an awe inspiring twenty one knots, this due largely to the stokehold crew volunteering en masse to man their shovels. Carmania arrived off the stricken ship at noon, just five hours after receiving her distress call, commendable indeed. With Carmania alongside his ship Captain Inch ordered that all available steam was to be directed towards the pumps and generators and turned his attention once more to his charges. Those, of which five hundred remained, were crammed on the aftermost part of the ship, with a Rabbi, provided by the company leading prayers for their deliverance to the sound of the Shofar (rams horn) being continuously blown. Meanwhile on Carmania its Captain called for volunteers to man a lifeboat from which a select crew was chosen, after pumping oil to calm the waters the boat was lowered to the cheers of both passengers and crew that had lined the rails. Two hours later, completely exhausted the boat returned to the lee of Carmania having failed to get anywhere near Volturno. Her Captain then slowly circled Carmania around the ship and passed as close as he dared to its stern observing those huddled together which included many women and children, the situation looked hopeless indeed. Having ruled out a breech buoy rescue Carmania’s Captain then released six of his lifeboats, unmanned, from windward, hoping they would let up alongside Volturno, unfortunately they all drifted passed her disappearing into the failing light. As night approached other ships arrived on the scene, British, Russian French, Belgian and German, in all eleven ships were to arrive, at the time all as equally impotent as Carmania. Inspiration was called for and in this Volturno’s Second Officer, Mr Lloyd, was not found wanting. With his Captain’s agreement, Volturno’s final lifeboat was lowered and with Lloyd in command along with four volunteers attempted to cross the two miles that separated them from the nearest ship, the Grosser Kurfuerst. After what seemed a lifetime they finally managed to get alongside and as the last man was hauled aboard their lifeboat, badly damaged finally sank.  GROSSER KURFUERST. As Captain Inch continued his fire fighting boats were lowered from Grosser Kurfuerst, Minneapolis and Devonian and made their way across the raging sea towards the blazing ship. On arriving, after considerable labour and within hailing distance the boats crews called for the passengers to jump, not one budged an inch preferring the tenuous, but dangerous safety of Volturno. All the lifeboats made their way back to their respective ships, save one from Minneapolis, she, because her crew were exhausted couldn’t make way but were fortunately picked up by Carmania as they drifted by. During the night Volturno’s rockets, bombs and Costen Lights stored on her bridge exploded due to the advancing inferno and all but decimated the structure, prompted by this event and thinking it was the ships final death throes some of the passengers threw themselves into the sea, all were to drown. The rescue ships lifeboats with fresh crews onboard approached yet again to attempt some sort of rescue, Captain Inch responded by asking his crew members to set an example and to jump into the sea hopefully leading some of the hardier passengers to follow. Upwards of eighty leapt with all but a handful being rescued, few were brave enough but one German having jumped and seeing no boats to rescue him swam all of two miles to the Carmania and was dragged onboard by an amazed crew.  DAYLIGHT ON THE MORNING OF THE 10th. As daylight approached the storm abated somewhat and with the aid of his remaining crewmembers Captain Inch began to lower the women and children into the waiting lifeboats. This however was not without complications wrought by the male elements amongst the passengers on seeing those escaping what still seemed to them to be certain death panicked and made a rush for the ships side. They were beaten back by Captain Inch’s remaining crew and Officers. With the arrival of the tanker Narragansett that had been steaming at best possible speed all night the rescue of those remaining onboard was considerably eased as she pumped tons of fuel oil onto the sea thus reducing the height of the waves. The last to leave Volturno was her Captain, his Officers and one of the ships cooks who had fortified those onboard by making endless pots of coffee and baking fresh bread. It took months to reunite the passengers as they were landed wherever those ships on which they found themselves berthed at the ports for which they were bound. Captain Inch who was blind for the first four days of his rescue was afforded the Freedom of the City of London the citation read “For outstanding courage and tenacity at its very noblest”. A week after the rescue had been affected the Dutch tanker Charlois happened on the still smouldering hulk, unaware of events and after determining that no one remained onboard her crew opened the sea cocks and Volturno finally disappeared from view. Within eleven days of the outbreak of the First World War, which had been declared on the 4th of August, 1914, Carmania was requisitioned for conversion to an AMC (Armed Merchant Cruiser) and was duly fitted with eight four-inch guns, in command was Captain Noel Grant RN who later rose to the rank of Rear Admiral, Carmania’s Captain Barr was appointed as her Commander RNR. Carmania arrived off Bermuda on the 23rd of August and was told that Cap Trafalgar along with two other much smaller steamers had been sighted off the Brazilian coast. Cap Trafalgar had been built for the Hamburg Sud Amerika Line by AG Vulkan of Hamburg in March of 1914 and after rendezvousing with SMS Eber of the German West African Squadron had been fitted with 2 x 10.5 cm and 6 x3.7 cm guns, Lt Commander Julius Wirth was appointed to command.  CAP TRAFALGAR. For disguise purposes her third funnel had been removed and she was painted to resemble that of a Union Castle ship! After her first patrol she arrived off the Island of Trinidade on the 14th of September, which is situated approximately 700 miles west of the Brazilian coast to refuel. At 1100 hrs Carmania arrived off the island whereupon she gave chase, both ships were of equal size and could maintain the same speed and both were in the main manned by naval reservists, however Carmania definitely outgunned the German ship and concentrated its fire at the waterline whilst Wirth responded by firing only at the British ships bridge. Mortally wounded Cap Trafalgar broke off the engagement at 1330 hrs and limped towards Trinidade, twenty minutes later she rolled over and sank in position 20° 10S, 29° 51W taking seventeen crew with her.  CAP TRAFALGAR SINKING Three hundred of her crew were successfully rescued by the supply collier Eleonore Woermann and landed at Buenos Aires. The return fire from Cap Trafalgar had to some extent been successful in as much that Carmania’s bridge had been set on fire and nine of her crew had been killed along with a further twenty-six wounded. Carmania was ordered to Gibraltar for repairs after which she returned back into service in the November. She later patrolled the coast of Portugal and attended the ill-fated Gallipoli landings. For his wartime achievements Captain Grant was later made a Companion of the order of the Bath. Carmania returned to her normal civilian duties after refit and commenced on the Liverpool-Cobh-New York service on the 21st of December 1918. She converted to oil burning in 1923 and the following year her accommodation was altered to that of Caronia’s. In 1925 she commenced Liverpool-Boston-New York service and the following year London-Southampton-Plymouth-Le Havre-New York. August of 1931 saw her final voyage for Cunard before being laid up at Tilbury, the following year she was broken at Blyth. The Greyhounds of the Atlantic. With its experimentation of propulsion brought to a satisfactory conclusion Cunard felt the time was right to challenge the speed supremacy enjoyed by the Germans and Morgan’s International Mercantile Marine. It therefore sought and received tenders for two ships that were to dominate the Atlantic, one for twenty two years and the other until she was sunk eight years after completion, the Mauretania and Lusitania. A contemporary journalist wrote “The Germans are a comparatively young nation as shipbuilders and as shipowners on a large and enterprising scale. They started out hampered by no traditions, and with eager and receptive minds, and today we see them not only beating us soundly on the Atlantic, but doing it practically unaided. Our shipowners have been declaring that excessively high speeds do not pay, and yet here we have two German lines contending for supremacy (NDL & HAPAG) not over us, for we are ‘out of it’ but over each other—in this very respect, and doing it practically without state assistance. It is some consolation to the British public to know that the German flag is not going to have all its own way on the Atlantic a year or two hence. The two new Cunarders, with their speed of 24.5 or 25 knots, will be able to show a clean pair of heels to the vessels of any other flag, and to this extent there will be widespread gratification, especially as Lord Inverclyde has formally contradicted the report that it was impossible to get the vessels built according to the company’s ideas. But what naturally occurs to the mind is to enquire whether, supposing there had been no Atlantic Combine, and no necessity for the British Government to step in, our shipowners would still have been content to stand by and see the Germans turning out greyhound after greyhound?” Three British yards submitted tenders; they were Swan Hunter on the Tyne, John Brown on the Clyde and Vickers of Barrow, the Lusitania eventually going to the Clyde with Mauretania going to Swan Hunter, both ships rolled down the stocks in 1906. Go to Part Five |
