RMS Mauretania

“ She was quickly followed by the “Lusitania” and “Mauretania,” built for the Cunard in 1907, with a tonnage of 33,000, and a speed of 241⁄2 knots. They were again eclipsed in size by the “Olympic,” “Aquitania,” and the “Imperator,” all about 50,000 tons; but the “Mauretania” still holds the blue riband of the Atlantic for speed. It is scarcely safe to say that the last big ship has been built; size is only limited by commercial considerations and the depth of water available in our harbours, as an iron ship, being a girder, her length is limited by the depth which can be given to the girder. ”

“ Then, too, in the Mauretania all bulkheads are carried up to the top deck, whereas in the case of the Titanic they reached in some parts only to the saloon deck and in others to a lower deck still,—the weakness of this being that, when the water reached to the top of a bulkhead as the ship sank by the head, it flowed over and filled the next compartment. The British Admiralty, which subsidizes the Mauretania and Lusitania as fast cruisers in time of war, insisted on this type of construction, and it is considered vastly better than that used in the Titanic. ”

“ But when we say that it would take a line of horses one hundred and twenty miles long hitched tandem to develop the power generated in the compact space of the Mauretania's engine room, some idea of the power is gained.
It is not the matter of power, size, or speed alone that makes the twentieth century passenger steamer so completely outclass her predecessors. It is really the matter of comfort and safety afforded the ocean travelers. Safety against sinking from injury to the hull was provided for by the introduction of watertight compartments half a century ago, as we have seen ”

“ There are some characteristics of the Mauretania and Lusitania, with their lifts, their marbles, curtains, ceilings, trees, and other expressions of twentieth century luxury, which, while appreciated by the landsman and his wife, are nauseating to the man who loves the sea and its ships for their own sakes, and not for the chance of enjoying self-indulgence in some new form. ”

“ In the ensuing half-decade several large ships were equipped with engines of the same type, the most famous of these being the Cunard liners, Carmania, Lusitania, and Mauretania. The two last-named ships are sister craft, and they are the largest boats of any kind hitherto constructed. The Lusitania was first launched and she entered immediately upon a record-breaking career, only to be surpassed within a few months by the Mauretania, which soon acquired all records for speed and endurance. ”

“ Attacked by a submarine, Commander Dow noticed the wake of the approaching torpedo on his starboard bow, and immediately ordering the helm to be flung hard aport the torpedo was missed by not more than 5 feet, the Mauretania’s great speed fortunately thereafter placing her beyond range of the enemy. ”

“ These latter will be seen in the illustration of the Mauretania already considered. As the day for launching approaches, so also does the anxiety of the builders increase, for at no time in her career is the ship so seriously endangered. On the day of the launch the weight of the vessel is gradually transferred from the stocks on which she has been built, to the cradle, being lifted bodily from the keel-blocks by means of an army of men driving wedges underneath her bottom. ”

“ They will measure 850 feet long, 90 feet broad, and be fitted with such luxuries as roller-skating rinks and other novelties. They will each possess a gross register of 45,000 tons. (By way of comparison we might remind the reader that the Mauretania has a gross register of 33,000 tons.) Named respectively the Olympic and Titanic, they will be propelled by three screws, and have a speed of 21 knots, so that besides being leviathans, they will also be greyhounds, and are destined for the Southampton-New York route. ”

“ The underlying reason for this difference seems to be that it is not possible to make any vehicle to travel on land appreciably larger than the present automobile, unless it run on rails; whereas the floating power of water is such that vehicles can be made, and are made, as large as 65,000 tons. The Mauretania, of 45,000 tons displacement, has been running for eight years, larger vessels are even now running and vessels larger still will undoubtedly be run; for the larger the ships, the less they cost per ton of carrying power, the faster they go, and the safer they are. ”

“ We did not go into the harbor; probably it was not deep enough for the Aquitania. The sick were taken aboard outside. We came to Naples early one fine Sunday morning. As we went into the harbor, I could see through the window Mt. Vesuvius, smoking steadily. We were in Naples at the same time as the big Olympic, and the Mauretania, the sister ship of the Lusitania. It was the time that the Germans had protested that the British hospital ships carried troops to the Dardanelles on the return trip. The neutral consuls in Naples went aboard the Olympic and Mauretania that Sunday and investigated. ”

“ Thus, from acting, as we have shewn, as purely combatant cruisers, the Aquitania, Caronia, Laconia and Carmania passed to different and even more valuable work; and at the same time many other39 Cunard vessels were upon the outbreak of war withdrawn from their usual avocation for more or less militant purposes. We find the Mauretania, for example, originally intended for employment as an armed cruiser, converted into a Troopship in 1915, and from this into a Hospital Ship in 1916, while in 1917 she again became a Transport, fitted with 6-in. guns. ”

“ Economy plus a first-class service would seem to be the modern combination of influence that is dominating the great steamship lines. Speed is a great deal, but it is not everything in a passenger steamship, and whether the limits have not already been surpassed, and the Mauretania and Lusitania with their high speeds and enormous cost of running will presently be regarded rather as belonging to the category of white elephants than of practical commercial steamships, time alone can show. ”

“ The photograph opposite page 286 represents the Mauretania being built on the Tyne. This striking photograph shows the floor and the double cellular bottom of the leviathan in the foreground; whilst in the background the frames of the ship have been already set up. Some idea of the enormous proportions may be obtained from the smallness of the men even in the foreground. The next illustration represents the289 Norddeutscher Lloyd liner, George Washington, and exhibits the framing of the ship and bulkheads before the steel-plating had been put on. ”

“ The alternative plan, which should be made compulsory on all large ocean-going passenger steamers, is the one adopted for the Mauretania, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Imperator, and a few other first-class ships, in which the coal-bunkers are placed at the sides of the ship, where they serve to prevent the flooding of the main boiler-room compartments. It is probable that any one of the ships named would have survived even the terrific collision which sank the Titanic. ”

“ Generally speaking the rule is that in fog, mist, or falling snow, all vessels are to proceed at a “moderate” speed, which brings about some absurdities. “Moderate speed” in a Mauretania might be nine knots or so, which in a low-power steamer would be full speed. On the other hand if, in a dense fog, all ships stopped, they could not harm one another, although they might drift out of position. ”

“ Triple-screw propellers have since then been introduced in some of the greater ships, and the record speed has been cut down to the four days and ten hours of the Lusitania in 1908 and the four days, six hours and forty-one minutes of the Mauretania in 1910.
The Titanic was not built especially for speed, but in every other way she was the master product of the shipbuilders’ art. Progress through the centuries has been steady, and perhaps the twentieth century will prepare a vessel that will be unsinkable as well as magnificent. ”

“ She was on shipboard again. It was moonlight, and Lord Loveland was telling her that he really cared a great deal more for her than for Lesley Dearmer. She confessed that she liked him, too; and he was just asking her to come and reign over Loveland Castle as well as his heart, when the distant, though disturbing, notes of an amateur concert in the music room of the Mauretania turned definitely into the shrill bur—r of that wretched telephone. The dream broke like a rainbow bubble, and Fanny sat up in bed, disappointed with life. ”

“ Maury stated that he had caused to be placed 180 in her channel and waterways, that they held the powerful fleet of Admiral Farragut for ten months at bay, and destroyed fully a dozen United States vessels, of which six were gunboats and four were monitors. Regular torpedo stations were established in Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah and Mobile, at which sixty naval officers and men were on duty, preparing these new engines of war. The channel-ways, rivers and harbours were protected by them from Virginia to Texas. ”

“ It was on the eighteenth day after they had quitted Malta that a large vessel was seen ahead about eighteen miles off. The men were then at breakfast.
“A frigate, Captain Wilson, I’m sure of it,” said Mr Hawkins the chaplain, whose anxiety induced him to go to the mast-head.
“How is she steering?”
“The same way as we are.”
The Aurora was under all possible sail, and when the hands were piped to dinner, it was thought that they had neared the chase about two miles.
“This will be a long chase; a stern chase always is,” observed Martin to Gascoigne. ”

“ Me ye prized for a handsome person and a smooth tongue, while you foolishly rejected men of ten times my worth, because they wanted the outward blandishments."
We were ordered to Bermuda, and on our first quitting the port steered away to the southward with a fair wind at north-west. This breeze soon freshened into a gale at south-east, and blew with some violence, but after a while it died away to a perfect calm, leaving a heavy swell, in which the ship rolled incessantly. ”

“ There was still another important passage that Maury aided materially in shortening. This was the voyage from England to Australia and New Zealand. He opposed the British Admiralty route which passed near the Cape of Good Hope, and advised ships to sail 600 to 800 miles further westward and then to continue southward until they reached the prevailing strong westerly winds which drove the clippers onward at a tremendous rate. He advised them, when homeward bound, to continue in those “brave west winds” and return by way of Cape Horn. ”

“ Some ten or twelve years ago, Lieutenant Maury of the United States Navy, on duty at the Naval Observatory, conceived the idea of ascertaining and defining the courses of ocean winds and currents, a knowledge of which he believed would shorten all ocean voyages, and link distant countries more closely together, and he obtained the permission and the aid of the Navy Department to collect the observations of mariners upon every sea. His plan was announced; the Navy was required to cooperate; an appeal was made to American ship-masters, who in all that pertains to their profession are unsurpassed ”

“ This is the ancestor of today’s Pilot Chart.
The United States instigated an international conference in 1853 to interest other nations in a system of exchanging nautical information. The plan, which was Maury’s, was enthusiastically adopted by other maritime nations. In 1854 the Depot was redesignated the “U.S. Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office.” At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Maury, a native of Virginia, regretfully resigned from his lifelong career in the U. S. Navy and accepted a commission in the Confederate Navy because his family and kin lived in the South. ”

“ It is an ill wind, they say, that blows nobody good; and we found it so with us; for off Toulon, in company with the fleet, if we did take prizes they became of little value, because there were so many to share them. Our captain, who was a man of the most consummate ruse de guerre I ever saw or heard of, had two reasons for sending his prizes to Gibraltar. The first was, that we should, in all probability, be sent down there to receive our men, and have the advantage of the cruise back; the second, that he was well aware of the corrupt practices of the admiralty-court at Malta. ”

“ Meanwhile, he had been promoted on June 10, 1836 to the rank of lieutenant, and though he had been offered a salary of $1200 as a mining engineer he decided to remain in the navy.
Maury’s interests were next directed to the Exploring Expedition to the South Seas. The little squadron selected to make the cruise, composed of the frigate Macedonian and the brigs Pioneer and Consort, rendezvoused at Norfolk in the autumn of the year 1836, under the command of Captain Thomas Ap Catesby Jones. Maury made an attempt to secure the command of one of the smaller vessels ”

“ After almost four years to a day, Maury was home again; but he was no longer the raw lad from the Tennessee backwoods, for the information and experience which he had gained on this cruise of the first American man-of-war to circumnavigate the globe had gone a long way towards taking the place of a college education. Men of the stamp of Commodore Charles Morris, Lieutenant Farragut, Captain Finch, Chaplain Stewart, and dozens of other officers with whom he had come in contact during 19his first two cruises had contributed, by example at least, in making him into an officer and a gentleman. ”