110 years ago, at the beginning of the summer of 1914, the R.M.S. AQUITANIA - which later proved to be an ocean liner with probably one of the most interesting careers in maritime history - performed her maiden voyage. This study gives an overview of her unique story.
Introduction:
AQUITANIA was an ocean-going passenger steamship of the British Cunard Steamship Company, which was built after the speed record ships of the company, LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA, as their half-sister (using the experience gained during the design, construction and operation of previous ships). “She was one of the queens of the transatlantic fleet. She was in two wars, a troopship, an armed merchant carrier, a hospital ship, a great transport, a ferry for war brides, and, finally, a ship of hope for displaced persons." praised The New York Times in its issue of December 17, 1949.
Indeed: The AQUITANIA, launched in April 1913 and scrapped in February 1950, left behind an incredible legacy. During its 582 (430 civilian transatlantic) voyages, it sailed more than 3 million miles (5,556,000 kilometers) (of which 500,000 miles, 926,000 kilometers during World War II alone) and carried 1,200,000 people (11,208 passengers in 1914, 90,000 soldiers between 1914-1918, more than 500,000 passengers between 1919-1939, more than 400,000 soldiers between 1939-1945). And her 36-year career almost doubled the average service life of ocean liners built up to that point.
Her owners called her the "Ship Beautiful", passengers called her the "World's Wondership", and her sailors - especially with regard to the ship's war performance - called her the "Old Irrepressible". She owes her fame to several factors:
1. Size and elegance: AQUITANIA was one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners of her time. Due to her large dimensions, spacious interior and elegance, she was a popular ship for transatlantic travelers.
2. Longevity: AQUITANIA has had a long and successful career. She was in active service between 1914 and 1950, so she was one of the longest-serving ocean liners of the 20th century.
3. Versatility: Due to her versatile applicability, AQUITANIA has played various roles during her long career (acting as ocean liner, armed merchant cruiser, troop transport and hospital ship).
4. Popularity: AQUITANIA was a popular ship among passengers due to her comfort, luxury, elegant appearance and amenities, speed and reliability.
5. Survivability: AQUITANIA served in both world wars and – outliving many of her contemporaries – in the 20th century. she operated as a passenger ship until the middle of the 20th century, as the world's last four-funnelled ocean liner
The present study reviews and takes these circumstances into account, and based on them reconstructs the unique history of this great ship.
From the idea to the order:
19/04/1902: The American financier and venture capital investor John Pierpont Morgan - after buying 7 large American and European shipping companies between 1886 and 1902 with the aim of monopolizing North Atlantic shipping routes – also makes an official takeover offer to the British Cunard Line, which, however, requests the support of the British government to preserve its independence and exclusively British ownership structure.
30/09/1902: The British government - for which, in the naval arms race initiated by the Germans, it is vital to have a sea transport capacity of sufficient size that can be used at any time in the event of war - enters into an agreement with the Cunard Line, in which, in addition to providing a loan with extremely favorable interest rates and an annual maintenance grant, it commits itself tocover the construction and operating costs of two new speed record ships, in the event that Cunard remains a purely British enterprise and undertakes to place its ships at the disposal of the British government in case of war.
16/06. and 08/08/1904: On the basis of the government-Cunard agreement, the construction of steam-turbine ships LUSITANIA (1906-1915) and MAURETANIA (1906-1935) with a size and speed superior to all previous passenger ships in the world begins. The ships traveling at a speed of 25 knots (46.3 km/h) cross the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America in 5 days - shorter than ever before.
04/30/1907: The British White Star Line shipping company belonging to the J.P. Morgan empire - Cunard's main British competitor - commissions the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast to prepare for the construction of three large ocean-going passenger steamships - the OLYMPIC, the TITANIC and GIGANTIC - and to start developing their detailed plans based on the customer's specifications. The White Star Line intends to establish a regular weekly service on the Atlantic Ocean with the three giant steamers that can be departed every 5 days, thus maximizing the financial benefits expected from passenger transport.
23/04/1908: The first public news report in the British daily paper The Daily News that "the White Star Line Company intend to build one or two large vessels to surpass in size any other ship in the world."
16/12/1909: After the laying of the keel of the OLYMPIC (23.04.1908) and the TITANIC (31.03.1909), copying the business plan of the White Star Line, the Cunard Line also decides to build a third running mate next to the LUSITANIA and the MAURETANIA, and entrusts the task of planning to the naval architect Leonard Peskett, who also designed the already completed sister ships.
Fig. 1: Key figures: the great rival American John Pierpont Mogran (1837-1913), George Arbuthnot Burns (1861-1905), 2nd Baron of Inverclyde, chairman of the Cunard Line from 1902-1905, and Leonard Peskett (1861-1924) From 1884 until his death, worked for the Cunard shipping company, and from 1905 he was the chief constructor and designer of the company's most important ocean liners.
The preparation of the concept plan is influenced by several circumstances:
Cunard cannot count on government support for the construction of the new ship, as in the case of LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA, so it has to manage the expected costs from its own revenues. The new ship is therefore designed for more economical operation - more moderate fuel consumption and lower speed - but much larger size and lavish equipment, compared to fast steamers (which could only be operated at a loss without a substantial subsidy from the government). According to Scottish maritime historian John Kurtz Maxton-Graham (1929-2015), therefore called the new ocean liner as the "Cunard's White Star Liner". Indeed: on the decision of Cunard's managing director, Alfred Allan Booth, and the board of directors, the new ship was designed to accommodate 3,500 people (750 first-class, 600 second-class, 2,000 third-class passengers and 900 crew members) and must be designed for average speed of 23 knots (42.5 km /h).
Thus, while the design of LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA was dominated by the German naval threat, the design of the third ship had its roots in the market competition between Cunard Line and White Star Line: White Star Line's OLYMPIC and TITANIC were built 15,000 tons larger than the LUSITANIA and the MAURETANIA, and - despite the fact that the Cunard ships were the fastest - the popularity of the White Star ships grew so quickly during their construction due to the success of the marketing-efforts emphasizing the spacious interior and the luxurious equipment, that there was a reason to worry: when the three ships of the White Star Line enter service, Cunard will be at a competitive disadvantage. That is why the third ship was needed, with which the Cunard Line can also afford to maintain the weekly transatlantic fast service. On the other hand, due to the lack of further British government support, it was decided to focus on the factors that ensure profitable operation in the design of the third ship - i.e. the large size and high luxury, that ensure the sale of more tickets, instead of the high speed that is too expensive. This was a great satisfaction for Cunard, since even the founder of the company, Samuel Cunard, dreamed of a sustainable Liverpool-New York service with three ships in 1838, but - based on the performance of the ships at that time - he could only plan for a two-weekly schedule. Now, however, ships can turn around on a weekly basis.
Fig. 2: The rival oceanliner-trios of Cunard Line (top), White Star Line (middle), and Hamburg-America Line (bottom). Although the LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA were 12% faster than the OLYMPIC class, they were also 30% smaller, so if Cunard wanted to be at the forefront in all respects, the AQUITANIA could not be quite the same as her older sisters. But while the British companies were competing with each other, the Germans quietly overtaken them: the size of the IMPERATOR class, built between 1912-1914, exceeded the size of the LUSITANIA by 40%, and that of the OLYMPIC by 13%, and their speed reached 24-26 knots (drawing: Dr. Tamás Balogh © 2024).
23/03/1910: Leonard Peskett's first meeting with Lloyd's representatives. Based on the consultation, double bottom built in the full length of the hull with 41 separate watertight compartments for proper trimming and 16 watertight transverse bulkheads spanning the full width of the vessel are proposed, rising 19ft (approx. 6m) above the waterline of the loaded vessel. 6 of these were traversed bylongitudinal bulkheads located 18 feet (5.5 m) inboard from the ship's outer shell to protect the boiler and engine rooms from the sides, and additional transverse bulkheads are proposed to be installed into the spaces between the transverse and longitudinal bulkheads, with 27-33 feet (8-10 m) spacing, so that the resulting spaces serve as longitudinal coal bunkers. Considering the length of the ship, in addition to the longitudinal coal bunkers, transverse coal bunkers can also be placed in front of and behind boiler rooms No. 1, 2 and 3 (the turbo generator is located in the space behind boiler room No. 4).
Fig. 3: Development of AQUITANIA plans 1909-1914, using earliest contemporary depictions (left) as basis for the reconstruction (right)(sources here, here, here and here; reconstruction and drawing: Dr. Tamás Balogh © 2024).
In parallel with the design, the John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank, which was selected to the construction makes the necessary preparations for building the new ship as follows:
1) As the new ship's large size and weight far exceeds any ship built at the shipyard up to that point, the preparation for construction requires consideration of extraordinary circumstances and measures of a magnitude not previously required on the banks of the River Clyde. The necessary investments will change the image of the entire factory. The slipway space for the construction of the ship (on which the LUSITANIA was also built) receives a special reinforcement - new piling. Steel plates is placed on the cross beams laid on pilings, on which concrete is spread, thus ensuring that the extended slipway cannot sink or become uneven anywhere. The extended and widened slipway area is equipped with a special crane system for lifting heavier building materials.
2) Then, 7 Derrick-type (named after Derrick, London's hangman) column or mast cranes were installed on both sides of the new slipway (their plans are above left), which were designed, produced and delivered by Sir William Arrol and Co. Ltd. of Glasgow (the same company designed a large-scale electric crane system in Belfast for the series production of the OLYMPIC class trio). Due to their great height and jib-extension, these cranes proved to be particularly important during construction. "Their load capacity in the extreme radius of 16.76 m was 5 tons (the smallest extension of the jib was 3.5 m). The total height of the mast was 41.15 m, and the height of the lift was 33.8 m above the berth level. With the help of a slewing gear, the jib could turn at an angle of 205 degrees. The mast was built from rolled-steel sections, well riveted together, provided with a suitable foundation plate and a top plate, to which the guys (tension stiffeners) were attached. The jib consisted of rolled-steel sections and plates, with two rolled-steel channels in the bottom boom, which formed the track for the trolley (which transmitted the load horizontally). The latter was constructed of steel plates and mounted on four single-flange wheels, and moved by a four-part rope, which was wound around a cast-iron drum driven by an electric motor. Suitable stairs and platforms are provided to give access to all parts requiring attention. The driver's cabin is situated immediately under the slewing gear, where the man has complete control of the operations and a clear view. The motors are of the totally-enclosed reversing type, especially designed for crane service in such a way that their operating temperature did not rise above the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere at 32 degrees Celsius even after half an hour of running at full load. The motors were equipped with a tramway-type reversing controller, having the vertical contact barrel mounted on ball-bearings to ensure ease of operation. The jib-slewing motor drives a spur-wheel, attached to the jib foot-bearing through reductions of gearing. The load is lifted on a single-part best plough-steel wire rope, winding on to a cast-iron drum, driven by a motor, through the medium of three reductions of spur-gearing. A double set of gear is provided for the last reduction in order that the two specified speeds of hoisting may be obtained. Change of gear is effected by means of a claw-clutch. The hoisting-drum is of large diameter, turned and grooved to take the full amount of rope in a single lap. Two breakes are provided: one is an automatic electric brake, operated by a means of a solenoid magnet connectedin such a manner that the brake is released directly the motor is started, and is applied directly the current is cut off, or fails for any reason. A foot-brake is fitted on the hoisting-motor spinfdle, so that the event of failure of the solemnoid brake, this brake may be applied by the opartator. The speeds of working are: Hoisting: 18.3 m/min for a 5 ton weight, 30.5 m/min for a 3 ton weight. Racking: 10.7 m/min for a weight of 5 tons. Slewing: 200 degrees/min for a weight of 5 tons." AQUITANIA's hull grew larger and larger with the help of these cranes on the slipway.
Fig. 4: The John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank in West Dunbartonshire (on the map, the ocean is on the left, and the city of Glasgow is on the right). A significant development in the shipyard was necessary to start construction. To the east of the fitting out basin ("Dock"), which divided the site, there were six old slipways, on which all the large ships were built, while the new slipways to the west of the Dock were used for construction of lightcruisers, canal steamers and other similar smaller vessels. In order to lay the keel of the AQUITANIA with minimal intervention, the areas occupied by two previous slipways were combined, so that five of the six slipways remained. At the same time, the service buildings at the front of the two former slipways (which housed the ship design and painting departments) were demolished, but the sheet metal, assembly and machine tool workshops continued to operate at the head of the rearranged slipways. The organization of the shipyard is praised by the fact that the AQUITANIA, largest British merchant ship up to that time, the HMS TIGER, the largest British battlecruiser, and the HMS BARHAM, the newest QUEEN ELIZABETH-class battleship, were built at the same time in the rearranged slipways. These were uniformly directed to the mouth of the River Cart, a left bank tributary of the River Clyde, as ships longer than the width of the Clyde could only be launched if they were admitted into the River Cart.
Fig. 5. and 6.: The new Derrick-type cranes (left) and foundation for the new slipway (right). As AQUITANIA's keel formed a sharper angle with the River Clyde than LUSITANIA's, new piling was required, particularly at the lower end of the slipway area, to secure the hull at the moment when the cradle supporting the ship's stern leaves the slipway and the stern of the ship is already held by the water. Based on experience in launching long ships, careful calculations were made to determine the moment at which the stern begins to float and the point at which the weight of the moving hull exerts a downward pressure on the slipway. Accordingly, piles were placed close to each other under the keel blocks supporting the keel and the area occupied by the slipway area, which were fixed with heavy stone scattering and finally concreted all around (source for both pictures: here).
Figs. 7. and 8.: Above: AQUITANIA's keel layed down. Below: the finished double bottom. (Source: here and here.)
06/05/1910: The keel-laying of the new ship at the John Brown Shipyard, Clyde Bank with yard number 409.
10/09/1910: The Cunard Line writes a letter to the John Brown Shipyard about "General conditions of the Proposed new Steamer. The hull, outfit, equipment, engines, boilers, auxiliary machinery, etc. are to be constructed of the very best materials, finished complete in a first-class style of workmanship to the entire satisfaction of the Owners, without any charge owing the contract price, unless previously agreed in writing."
08/12/1910: Official order of the ship (six months after the start of construction). By this time, the framing of AQUITANIA was nearly completely finished.
Fig. 9. and 10.: AQUITANIA's hull is completely framed in the background. In the foreground is the cruiser HMS SOUTHAMPTON under fitting out. On slipway betwen the cruiser and the oceanliner is the passenger steamship RMS NIAGARA, nearing her completition. The presence of the two other ships dates the picture between to May 1911 and August 1912. (source: here and here).
From construction to the handover:
10/02/1911: Official announcement of the new ship's name in the press: "The Cunard Company has decided to name the new 50,000-ton vessel which is now building for it at Clyde Bank the Aquitania."
10/05/1911: Finalization of the steel structural plans for the new ship.
14/06/1911: The inaugural voyage of the OLYMPIC. 8 days earlier in the paper Liverpool Journal of Commerce, the first guess appears, and 2 days later the official announcement is published in The Shipping Gazette and in the Lloyd's List that a third ship is being built next to the OLYMPIC and the TITANIC.
26/08/1911: Since Cunard wants an ocean liner capable of surpassing the OLYMPIC, which is considered to be its main rival - of huge size and lavishly decorated spacious interior - Leonard Peskett, Cunard's chief designer, goes on a study-tour on OLYMPIC as one of the passengers of the ship's third voyage, and returns home to submit his report about his experiences. His observations range from the ship's main dimensions, load capacity, general arrangement and propulsion to the smallest details of the equipment.
Regarding the vessel's draft conditions, for example, he states: “The center of the disc is 34 feet 0 inch above the bottom of the keel: The load line was, therefore, submerged 17 inches, allowing the density of the water to be 1020 kg/m3 the draft would be about 15 inches too much.".
Among the passenger comfort services, he was impressed by the spacious spaces: "One cannot help being impressed - even with a large number of passengers on board - with the superabundance of promenade deck space."
Figs. 11, 12. and 13.: Based on the experience gained at OLYMPIC, Peskett designed a two-level promenade for the AQUITANIA "B" deck, more spacious than ever before. This not only satisfied all the needs of passengers using the promenade deck (the raised upper section was reserved for deck chairs, the lower section was reserved for those who would like to promenading), but secure natural light and fresh air for the internal cabins (on deck "C", without direct access to the sea) at the same time. In this way, Peskett created a type of "inside-outside" cabins that was not known until then, which further enhanced the magnificence of AQUITANIA compared to other ships.
Peskett also noticed which room is the most visited: "The reception room serves as a meeting place before ans as a lounge after meals. The band plays here after lunch at afternoon tea and after dinner, the room is full, but after dinner the lace is crowded all the surplus chairs an settees have been moved out of the en suite rooms and placed there. Chairs are brought out of the saloon, and every available space - main stairway included - is occupied by passengers as ceases (21:15) they disperse to their cabins and to the promenade and public rooms on "A" deck. There seems to be no doubt that if the band played in the reception-room until 23:00 o'clock the passengers would remain there, as only those who could not secure seats had moved away until the music had ceased."
He also recorded the schedule of the band: "10-11 AM, band plays in 2nd class companion. 11-12 do 1st, boat deck companion, 5-6 do 2nd class companion, 8-9.15 do reception room, 9.15-10.15 do 2nd class companion."
Figs. 14.-15. and 16.-17.: The first-class lounge aboard OLYMPIC (left) and AQUITANIA (right) looking towards the bow (above) and looking from the starboard side to the port (below).
He paid special attention to the a la carte restaurant: "The restaurant is run by the owners, under the superintendence of a manager, the department is entirely separate from that of the chief steward, having an independent staff, galleym strore-rooms, etc. Owing to the great demand fro seats in the restaurant the tables have been increased from 25 to 41 (merely providing 33 additional seats), the introduction of the restaurant appears to be creating a new class. The restaurant certainly finds a place for that class of passenger who is always dissatisfied with the catering on every ship in which he may travel. The question, however, is whether, after having to pay a restaurant account for one voyage, he will not be more content to take, without demeur, his food in the saloon passage money for taking meals in the restaurant is stated to be £5. Judging from reports, this amount would scarcely suffice for one day's patronage. An objection to the restaurant is that the windows open out onto the 2nd class promenade."
In the first-class dining room, he made the following observations: „As regards the planning and general seating arrangements, very little fault can be found. It is in the ventillation of the room that an apparent error of judgement has been made. There is no operating or well in the centre. At first, there was no provision made for exhausting the vitiated air from the saloon, but while the ship was in southampton two small fans were fitted over gratings in the ceiling in a position about midway between the machinery casings and some 16 feet out from the middle line. Ordinary fans have also been fitted in all convenient positions, owing to the great beam and the difficulty at thet depth of providing natural light. […]The inner part of the window is made up of leaded glass. When these windows are closed one cannot detect the outline of the ports the light being well diffused over the whole surface of the inner glass. Inside the window and on each side of the frame theres is a strip of linolite fitted which proves vry effective at night. […] A number of restaurant menus are attached upon which are given the prices for the various dishes. The minimum rate per head for a dinner for three or more persons is 12 shilling 6 pennies. In the matter of time occupied in the execution of passengers' orders, nothing better could be desired. The two sides of the saloon are separately served, i.e. the port side is served from the port pantry, and the starboard side from the starboard pantry. At luncheon and dinner, port is served from tureins pleased on sidetrarts in the saloon. Regarding the standard of quality, method of serving the food, napery, cutlery and general service, the is much higher in the Cunard then in White Star - an opinion expressed several times by passengers on the OLYMPIC who have evidently travelled by both liners. It was noted that all saloon stewards uniforms has light blue facings, while those employed elswhere wore the ordinary uniform without anydistinctive markings. The 1st and 2nd class galleys and pantries appeared to give satisfaction to all concerned. The galleys are warm in the neighbourhood of the ranges.”
Figs. 18.-19. and 20.-21.: The first-class dining room and the a la carte restaurant on OLYMPIC (above and below left), and the first-class dining room and grill restaurant on board AQUITANIA (above and below right).
Regarding the fourth dummy-funnel, which contributes the most to the famously elegant, balanced profile of the OLYMPIC-class, Peskett noted that: „The dummy funnel from which so much in the way of ventilation was expected has not proved a success. There are so many currents of air being driven in at the bottom of the funnel which are colder than that in the compartments below, that an air-lock is formed at that particular place, and the heat on the top platforms of the reciprocating engine room and between the top of the turbine and bottom of the funnel is excessive. The theory of the cool air coming down the engine hatch and the hot air going up the dummy funnel seems feasible, but in then case it does not work, as ado sated, to the colder air from other compartments being exhausted into the base of the funnel. The writer went to the top of the funnel, but could feel no great rush-of air going out. The whole of the inside of the funnel was at a moderate temperature, and there was nothing to indicate that the funnel was exhausting hot air from the machinery spaces. The air from all lavatories and pantries is exhausted by powerful fans, the inlet of fresh air being by the entrances to the lavatories and by side ports only. All first, second and third-class public rooms also second class, third class and crew's quarters, are heated and ventils by the thermotank system.”
He also examined the Turkish bath with an expert eye: „The turkish bath is open to ldies at various hours as advertised a charge of 4 pennies (which includes the use of swimming bath) is made, the bath, as far as fittings, ventilation, and hot-air supply are concerned, is not a success. In the steam and hot rooms the sides are covered with "emdeca", the enamel on which is all peeling off and the zinc going to powder (samples taken from walls submitted). The cooling room os stuffy and needs more fans to exhaust the vitiated air, altogether a considerable alteration is required.”.
Regarding the other sports facilities available on board, he noted: „The gymnasium was fairly well patronized, and seemed at no time to be unoccupied, but it is too far away from the swimming bath, raquet court, etc.”
Figs. 22.-23. and 24.-25.: Swimming pool and gym on board OLYMPIC (left) and AQUITANIA (right).
In the case of the AQUITANIA, Peskett tries to overcome the deficiencies experienced on the OLYMPIC by incorporating those innovative solutions tested on board FRANCONIA and LACONIA, (Cunard's medium-sized experimental ocean liners built in 1911-1912) into the ship's passenger-comfort services - namely (1) the shipboard-gym used for the first time by the company, (2) the bathrooms with running water introduced in the first-class suites (instead of the previous wash stands equipped with fall-front ceramic wash basins, hiden behind cabinet doors), (3) the movable chairs used in the first-class dining room (instead of the swivel chairs bolted to the floor before), and (4) all of these novelties are also planned for the second-class restaurant at AQUITANIA. Furthermore in order to moderate the AQUITANIA's rolling and to prevent inconveniences experienced in the swimming pool of the OLYMPIC, both caused by the characteristic movements of large ships in strong sea waves (heaveing, swaying, surgeing, rolling, pitching and yawing), it is decided to use of U-shaped anti-rolling tanks, recently developed by the German Hermann Frahm (patented July 15, 1908).
The invention was developed to reduce the considerable rolling of the German steamer YPIRANGA (built in 1908) by the German inventor Hermann Frahm, who suggested to install onboard a tank, having two lateral reservoirs connected at the bottom by a water duct, and at the top by an air duct. In some later designs the air duct was removed and the tanks vented to atmosphere. The water oscillation in each reservoir could be controlled by the air pressure, thus giving rise to the anti-roll U-type tanks steamers YPIRANGA and CORCOVADO and gained significant roll reduction by using tanks having a mass of 1.3 to 1.5 % of the ships displacement. He noted that the best location to place the tanks is above the center of gravity of the ship, located one on port and. one on starboard. The principle of operation of anti-roll tanks is that as the ship rolls, the fluid inside the tank moves with the same period the ship moves, but lagging a quarter of the period of the rolling of the vessel weight of the mass of fluid produces a moment that opposes the roll motion. This moment attains its maximum values when the ship passes through its vertical position.
Fig. 26.: Illustrative drawing of the operating principle of the Frahm anti-rolling system (source).
Although Peskett studied the OLYMPIC, he ultimately did not follow her proportional appearance created by her designer - Alexander Carlisle (although both ships were built with 9-9 passenger decks), and instead of to follow the use of split superstructure of the OLYMPIC (consisting of a raised forecaslte and poop deck and a higher middle superstructure between them), he takes over and develops further the design of the sisterships LUSITANIA/MAURETANIA, as well as the CARMANIA/CARONIA and FRANCONIA/LACONIA. The lack of a raised forecastle deck made the main superstructure in the middle appear taller. Therefore, and due to the usual design of all Cunarders, (i.e. the superstructure covers most of the entire length of the deck - this is the so-called "full-superstructure"), the main and only superstructure remains large compared to the hull, with a "boxy" appearance, and this cannot be mitigated even by tilting the funnels and masts at 9 degrees.
30/11/1911: Laying of the keel of the third OLYMPIC-class ocean liner, the GIGANTIC, now called BRITANNIC.
15/04/1912: The disaster of the TITANIC.
10/06/1912: Leonard Peskett testifies as an expert witness before the british wreck commissioner investigating the circumstances of the sinking of the TITANIC. The tragedy of the TITANIC also affects the construction of the AQUITANIA, insofar as the already approved steel structural plans are modified. As a result, the watertight deck designed in the ship's hull is extended, and at the level of deck "G" (in front of and behind the boiler and engine rooms) and deck "F" (above the boiler and engine rooms) they are extended to the entire length of the hull, at the same time all deck-drains, doors, holes and hatches are made watertight. The special precautions ensure that the ship remains afloat even if the forward or rear 5 adjacent compartments are flooded by the sea (provided that the portholes are all closed), and is not in danger even if 5 of her longitudinal compartments (next to the boiler and engine roomes) will be opened to the sea or flooded.
Fig. 27. and 28.: AQUITANIA's watertight interior subdivision by highlighting the watertight bulkheads/decks in side and top views, as well as in the ship's cross-section (left). Non-watertight elements of space demarcation are not visible in these drawings. Havaria analysis and flooding diagram (right) in case of flooding of the fore five and aft five adjacent compartments (first and second figures), as well as damage to the aft five compartments and the lower watertight deck in the stern (third figure), and when flooding all longitudinal compartments simultaneously (fourth figure). The vessel remains afloat in the event of all suspected damage.
26/03/1913: Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, announces in the British Parliament the intention of the British government to arm all British merchant ships in case of war.
21/04/1913: Launch of the ship (by Alice Stanley, Countess of Derby) in the presence of about 100,000 onlookers. Originally, King George V was invited to launch the largest ship in the country, but due to his other commitments, he was unable to participate in the ceremony. The ship glides onto the water in 1 minute 31 seconds, at an average speed of 10 feet per second (3.05 m/s). Fitting out for 13 months begins.
Figs. 29.-30. and 31.-32.: The invitation card and a postcard issued for the ceremonial launch of AQUITANIA with the moment of touching the water first and the portrait of the godmother (source: here, here, here and here).
12/05.-21/07/1913: Simultaneously with preparing the LUSITANIA for war (following the decision regarding the armament of merchant ships), the fittings suitable for mounting the ship's artillery are also placed on the deck of the AQUITANIA, which is being fitted out: i.e. (1) plating that strengthens the gun mounts and the deck "C" - to compensate the tensile force that occurs when the cannons are fired - and (2) the conversion of cargo spaces under the guns into ammunition storage.
12/11/1913: Following the sinking of the TITANIC, an international conference is convened in London in order to create international minimum safety rules for civilian ships.
10/11/1913-10/01/1914: Installation of boilers and turbines, as well as of funnels. Instead of the narrower vertical rectangular windows originally planned for the deck "B" (which resulted a denser window arrangement), windows of the same size as the large square windows on deck "A" are also installed in the glass-enclosed central part of the "B" deck peromenade (the frame-segments are not installed, instead of narrow, vertical sliding windows, large square, horizontal sliding windows are built in).
Figs. 33. and 34.: Above the Babkock & Willkox luggage crane with a load capacity of 1.5 tons on the "B" deck. Next to the starboard parapet, the two lighter bands visible on the deck indicate the reinforced base necessary for the installation of the 15.2 cm quick-fireing naval gun. Below is the AQUITANIA next to the quay of the fitting out basin, after hoisting in the turbines and funnels, during the finalizing the window-arrangement of the "B" deck promenade (source: here and here).
20/01/1914: The international convention "Safety of Life at Sea" (SOLAS) adopted at the London conference, which, among other things, lays down mandatory regulations for the ships construction (distribution of interior space) and their rescue-equipment (for lifeboats, etc.), comes into force. As a result of the changes in the regulations, the appropriate redesign of the AQUITANIA's lifeboat arrangement will be carried out. This is the latest modification to affect the plans, making AQUITANIA the first ocean liner to be equipped lifeboats with enough capacity for all the people on board.
Figs. 35.-36., 37.-38. and 39.: The number of 16 and then 24 boats originally planned in November 1910 was then increased to 84 (1-1 collapsible lifeboats are placed under the boats hanging on the davits in the 12-12 lifeboat-stations on both sides of the boat deck, and other 8-8 collapsible lifeboats placed on the deck in a row, parallelly to the boats hanging on the cranes, while 10 further collapsible boats are placed on the top of the second-class superstructure). Costs total £1,400 for the lifeboats and £2,100 for the lifeboat-cranes. This is barely 0.2% of the total cost of shipbuilding. It is interesting that while only 16 boats were expected, the purchase of the easier-to-handle but more expensive Welin-type boat cranes was considered permissible, but due to the expansion of the number of boats in connection with the TITANIC tragedy, more cranes were needed, therefore the cheaper traditional radial davits were bought (source: here, here, here and here, drawing: Dr. Tamás Balogh © 2024).
Fig. 40.-41.: The AQUITANIA in the fitting out basin nearly to her completition. Note the warship (the battlecruiser HMS TIGER) right below (source: here and here).
02/01/1914: It is announced that the first captain of the AQUITANIA will be William Thomas Turner (1856-1933).
10/05/1914: Sea trials of the ship. Compared to the planned speed of 23 knots, the ship performs a whole knot more.
Figure 42: AQUITANIA's machinery spaces (above). 21 double-ended boilers were placed in the ship's 4 boiler rooms (18 in the first three, 3 in the fourth), which operated at the pressure of 134.6 bar (137 kg/cm2), produced during the transatlantic crossing for the main propulsion (to secure maximum revolution of the screws), steam required for energy production and other tasks for auxiliary machines. Each double-ended boiler had 4 stokeholds on each side, which were feeded with coal from the longitudinal (wing-) bunkers situated along the ship's sides and transverse (cross-) bunkers, situated between the boiler rooms. The necessary air flow in the combustion chamber of the boilers was provided with draft-increasing fans.
Figs. 43. and 44.-45.: Side view of AQUITANIA's 3rd and 4th boiler rooms (center above), and inner (center left) and outer (center right) engine rooms. The engine room configuration differed from the solution used on the LUSITANIA and the MAURETANIA, as three pressure stages were installed instead of two: the high-pressure turbine drove the portside-, the medium the starboardside-, and two low-pressure turbines the two middle shafts, while a reverse turbine unit was placed directly behind the forward units on each shafts.
Fig. 46: The steam entered the engine room through two main steam lines running along the length of the boiler rooms, where it reached the forward or reverse high-pressure turbines through different maneuvering valves, from which it left into the medium-pressure turbine and then into the two low-pressure turbines. The exhausted steam coming out of these was condensed into feed water in the vacuum condensers behind the turbine space and pumped back to the boilers. In case of emergency, any turbine could be disconnected from the steam circuit.
Figs. 47. and 48.: Side views of the AQUITANIA during sea trials (source: here and here).
24/05/1914: Official handover of the ship.
Following the successful sea trials, the ship will proceed to Liverpool where she will go into the Gladstone graving dock for an inspection. After everything is found to be in order, the ship will be handed over officially to the owner.
Technical data:
Length: 274.9 m (901 ft)
Width: 29.2 m (97 ft)
Propolsion: 4 direct drive Parsons steam turbines, 4 propellers,
Power: 59,000 HP
Speed: service speed: 23 knots (42.6 km/h),
maximum speed: 24 knots (44.4 km/h)
Fig. 49.: AQUITANIA in Gladstone graving dock (source). The need to build a dry dock capable of accommodating 300 m long ships was formulated in 1901, but – necessary due to the frequent changes in industry needs – it was only opened in February 1913 after several redesigns, when it became obvious that if the dock was not completed urgently, then the a new Cunard liner will not be able to be repaired in Liverpool either. The design and construction of the Gladstone dry dock was therefore not determined by a profession, nor by a major operator, but ultimately by a single ship. The 320 m long, 37 m wide and 13 m deep dry dock was named after Liverpool merchant Robert Gladstone - the second-nephew of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. Until 1927, the surroundings of the dry dock were expanded with a harbor basin (including 4.8 km of wharf and extensive warehouse buildings), which was connected to the Mersey River by a lock due to the frequently changed water level. The 330 m long, 40 m wide and 13 m deep lock is larger than the lock of the Panama Canal at the time of its delivery, and is still one of the most important engineering work of the Liverpool container port.
Fig. 50.: Captain William Thomas Turner (1856-1933), commander of several Cunard ships, including the ill-fated LUSITANIA, wearing gala uniform of the Royal Naval Reserve during the ceremonial handing over of AQUITANIA on the ship's flying bridge (source).
With the commissioning of AQUITANIA, Cunard Line is the first to realize the plan to provide a weekly service across the Atlantic Ocean with three ships. What's more: in the time since LUSITANIA was handed over in 1907, the tonnage of the Cunard fleet increased by 70% with the construction of 8 new ships (FRANCONIA/LACONIA, ALBANIA, AUSONIA, ASCANIA, ANDANIA/ ALAUNIA, AQUITANIA) - they means 141,021 tons alltogether -, while its biggest competitors, the American majority-owned British White Star Line, as well as the German Hamburg-Amerika Line and Norddeutscher Lloyd, only increased their fleet by 20-20 and 24% respectively in the same period (without taking into account the sunken TITANIC and BRITANNIC, and the COLUMBUS, which are still under construction - taking TITANIC into account, the increase of the White Star Line would have reached 30%).
From commissioning to the First World War:
30/05/1914: The ship departs Liverpool for New York on her maiden voyage on Saturday at 14:30. The occasion was overshadowed by the commissioning of the German VATERLAND 14 days earlier and the tragedy of the EMPRESS of IRELAND the previous day.
The press coverage of the tragedy re-intensifies the interest in the watertight subdivision of passenger ships, which became the focus of interest two years ago on the occasion of the TITANIC tragedy. Although Cunard Line emphasizes that AQUITANIA has the most sophisticated bulkhead system ever and the most detailed internal subdivision to minimize the effects of intruding water, passengers are not reassured by this.
Table 1.: The largest ships in the world at the time AQUITANIA was entered service.
Fig. 51.: Comparison of the main features of the two brand new giant ocean liners most awaitied by New Yorkers in June 1914, the British AQUITANIA and the German VATERLAND, in a drawing by George Horace Davis for the magazine 'The Sphere'. (source).
Fig. 51.: Elevation and general arrangement of the ship. Note that the distance between the first three funnels was the same, but slightly smaller between the third and fourth funnels (drawing: Dr. Tamás Balogh © 2024.).
31/05/1914: The Liverpool correspondent of The New York Times reports on her departure for American readers: “The Cunard Line's new leviathan Aquitania sailed on her maiden voyage for New York this afternoon. Although only 7,000 tons smaller than the Vaterland, she sits much lower in the water than her German rival, and fails to give the same impression of size. British admirers, however, say that she looks more like a ship."
01/06/1914: The New York Times informs its readers of the ship's first day's performance based on a radio message relayed from AQUITANIA to America with the help of MAURETANIA: "ON BOARD THE STEAMSHIP AQUITANIA, via the Mauretania and Crookhaven, May 31. -- With scarcely a trace of vibration, the Aquitania made twenty-five knots, averaging twenty-three for the first day's run. She is passing tramps which roll viciously in the Atlantic swell, but the Aquitania is as stiff as a lighthouse. Passengers say it is a pity billiard tables were not provided."
05/06/1914: At 09:00 on Friday, the AQUITANIA arrives in New York with 1,055 passengers on board (after the TITANIC disaster, many people are still afraid to buy tickets for the very first voyage of a new ship), which is about a third of her capacity. She made the 3,181 nautical mile (5,891 km) journey from Liverpool to the AMBROSE light-vessel at 23.1 knots (42.8 km/h) with a 5 hour layover due to the proximity of icebergs and fog. Nevertheless, there was a period of the voyage when the ship was traveling at 25.1 knots (46.5 km/h). The New York Times, published on the day of her arrival, informs its readers about the the AQUITANIA's performance on the day before: "According to a wireless telegram received last night from Captain Turner, the Aquitania, the new Cunarder, continues to run excellently. In the twenty-four hours that ended at noon yesterday, she again reached 602 miles, giving an average speed of 24.24 knots.”
Fig. 52.:Maiden arrival of AQUITANIA in New York (source).
10/06/1914: Wednesday at 10:00 the ship leaves New York via Fishguard for Liverpool. 2,649 passengers bought tickets for the return trip. This also establishes the regularity of the ship's service. AQUITANIA is assigned to the Liverpool-New York-Fishguard-Liverpool route, which departs from Liverpool on Saturday and New York on Wednesday, where it connects with LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA, and with CAMPANIA, CARMANIA, CARONIA, FRANCONIA and LACONIA (they goes alternately to New York or to Boston). From the maiden voyage in May until the end of the year, a total of 8 crossings (16 trips) are planned according to the schedule compiled for her (from Liverpool on May 30, June 20, July 11, August 15, September 5 and 26, October 17 . and December 5, and from New York on June 10, July 1, 22, August 15, October 7, 28 and December 16).
20/06/1914: Saturday, at 2:30 p.m., the AQUITANIA departs for her second crossing from Liverpool following minor modifications suggested by the ship's guarantee group and her manager, designer Leonard Peskett, based on the experience of the first crossing. Based on complaints received in connection with ventilation, portable fans are being added to the installation of passenger spaces (all first- and second-class inner cabins on the "C" deck) and some operational areas (the first-class pastry shop and the second-class galley).
28/06/1914: Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian national and Austro-Hungarian citizen, murders the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo.
21/07/1914: According to the schedule published at the beginning of the year the scheduled departure of the ship on her third crossing back to Europe on Wednesday, July 22 at 10:00 a.m. will be moved 18 hours earlier, so the AQUITANIA therefore departs New York at 16:00 on Tuesday the 21st. During her first 3 crossings (i.e. her first 6 voyages), the ship carries 11,208 passengers. Due to the tense European situation threatening war, the ship will have not been prepared for the next crossing due on August 15.
23/07/1914: The charge d'affaires of the Austria-Hungary in Belgrade hands over a ten-point demand to the Serbian government, and leaves a 48-hour reprieve for the fulfillment of that. European diplomacy is set in motion, secret negotiations begin from Paris to Moscow in order to localize the conflict and prevent a larger international conflict. England offers itself as a mediator.
25/07/1914: Serbia announces that it accepts all but two of the ten Austro-Hungarian demands unconditionally, and wants to negotiate the fulfillment of the remaining two. However, the Monarchy insists on unconditional acceptance of all demands, and therefore orders a partial mobilization against Serbia at 10:00 p.m. that same evening.
28/07/1914: The Danube Monarchy declares war on Serbia. The hostlities begin that evening.
29/07/1914: Russia - which previously promised support to Serbia - partially mobilizes the tsarist army and fleet against Austria-Hungary due to the attack on its ally.
30/07/1914: The order for general mobilization is issued in Russia. Germany then demands an ultimatum to stop the Russian general mobilization, and in the event of failure to do so, threatens a declaration of war.
31/07/1914: The German government calls on the French government to make a statement on whether it would remain neutral in the event of a war between Germany and Russia. In response to the Russian mobilization, Austria-Hungary replaces the partial mobilization aimed only against Serbia with a general mobilization.
01/08/1914: At 16:45, France also decides in favor of general mobilization. At 5:00 p.m., the order for general mobilization is issued in Germany.
02/08/1914: The Germans ignite hostilities by publishing fake news that French army soldiers have breached the Belgian-German border and launched air raids on German cities from Belgian airspace. At 20:00 in the evening, the German ambassador in Brussels gives the Belgian government an ultimatum with a 12-hour deadline, in which he asks Belgium to agree to the presence of German troops, since it cannot defend its neutrality against France on its own. The Belgian government rejects the demand.
The Admiralty announces its demand for military use of the AQUITANIA. At Liverpool's Gladstone docks, they begin arming the ship and converting it into an auxiliary cruiser that raiding against enemy commercial shipping. However, only 6 of the 12 15.2 cm naval guns that can be installed according to the plans will be installed (cannons that can only be installed at the cost of opening the side of the superstructure - i.e. a more extensive conversion - will be waived), so they will be placed on the open bow and stern decks 2-2, and 1-1 guns. On the windows of the bridge, cover boards are placed to protect them from bullets, and on the open promenades, rope curtains made of thick ship's rope to catch shrapnels are placed (the ship will only be painted blue-grey later).
Figs. 53.-55.: AQUITANIA as an armed merchant cruiser. A postcard dated August 3, 1914 (above, owned by Steve Anderson) about the armament of the AQUITANIA survives, the sender of which reported on the modifications taking place: "Dear Aunt Yanny: I hope you are both well, we are very well at present, and are staying here for a week. Have just been to see this large ship they are getting her ready -- for the war. Liverpool, seems very busy it is a very nice place. Love from all, L. Dennis”. The postcard shows not only the removal of AQUITANIA's collapsible boats (which can be seen unloaded alongside the ship on the wharf), but also the placement of the 6-inch quick-fireing naval guns without armor shields on the bow deck. The mounted guns are clearly visible on the bow deck in a photograph (below) taken of the ship when she was going to her first patrol (source). The ship still wears its civilian colors, as the crew undertook to repaint her themselves during the patrol to the blue-gray navy coat.
08/03/1914: The German ambassador in Paris announces a state of war between Germany and France.
08/04/1914: The German offensive against France through Belgium begins. Belgium begins armed resistance and at the same time asks the great powers that guarantee its neutrality - England and France - for military assistance. An English ultimatum arrives in Berlin with a midnight deadline.
05/08/1914: The deadline expires without results, and at 11:00 a.m. the state of war is established between England and Germany as well (so Great Britain is the only power that itself declares war on Germany, not the other way around). The British ALERT cable laying ship cuts the submarine telegraph cables connecting Germany to the world, and at the same time the British take control of the international mail and telegraph traffic passing through their territory. Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia at the instigation of the Germans who affraid of the two-front war. Europe is at the status of war.
In the First World War:
08/08/1914: The ship was commissioned as an armed merchant cruiser (H.M.S. AQUITANIA). The cost of the conversion is £40,000. The ship's task is to protect the west coast of England, primarily Liverpool as an auxiliary vessel of the Navy. Its commander is E. K. Loring, a naval officer, and the ship's commander is Captain William Thomas Turner (later commander of the LUSITANIA on the last voyage of the ship). The AQUITANIA is sent on her first armed patrol in the southern part of the "Western Approaches" (a roughly rectangular area in the Atlantic Ocean west of the British Isles, extending north-south from Scotland to Cornwall).
22/08/1914: Nearing the end of her patrol, the AQUITANIA bound for Liverpool collided with another ship in thick fog near the Old Head of Kinsale on the south coast of Ireland. The force of the impact pushes the bow of the ship back 15.24 meters (the entire structure directly below the line of the anchors), the stem bends and the starboard side of the bow also suffers further severe damage. According to the damage-report recorded by Lloyd's on August 25, 1914, the other ship damaged in the accident is the Leyland Line's 9,000 ton CANADIAN. According to the lease agreement, the entire cost of the repair must be borne by the Admiralty, so only the most necessary interventions to restore seaworthiness will be carried out.
30/09/1914: The Admiralty determines that costs of coaling large liners are too high (plus there is not enough coal) to operate as auxiliary cruisers. AQUITANIA will therefore be decommissioned and returned to the Cunard Line after her repairs completed on 14 September.
17/05/1915: Captain Daniel Dow (1860-1931) is appointed as the ship's second commander.
18/05/1915: The British government announces that it intends to use the ship for the purpose of troop transport (H.M.T. AQUITANIA) in return for a monthly rent of 30,000 pounds in the operations against the Osman Empire on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
21/05/1915: AQUITANIA runs aground in the Mersey Estuary while approaching Liverpool. The 7th Battalion of the Royal Scots Army, which had been ordered to embark, was supposed to leave its station on this day to be transported by rail to Liverpool, but due to the news of the AQUITANIA being scuttled, their embarkation was delayed. Only at night comes the news that the ocean liner has been towed off the reef.
22/05/1915: On Saturday, at 03:45 a.m., the first train will set off, with the battalion command and companies A and D. At 06:49, the southbound train collides head-on on the main line at Quintinshill - just north of Gretna - with the northbound local passenger train waiting on the open track, which was stopped so that the faster express behind, could overtake it (normally, the passenger train would be stopped on one of the storage tracks of the station, but both tracks were already occupied by a freight train). The wagons of the military train, which overturned in the collision, fall onto the adjacent main line track, where a minute later the express train to Glasgow runs into it, crashing into the wreckage. Wrecked railway cars catch fire (most old cars are made of wood and are lit by gas in the tank below them), which makes it difficult to rescue people trapped in overturned and damaged cars. 216 of the 498 soldiers and 12 of the civilians lost their lives in the accident (mainly from the express train). It is Britain's worst rail disaster.
5,000 soldiers of the 13th Division eventually arrive on board the AQUITANIA. The ship leaves for Mudros, Turkey on the same day.
Figs. 56.-58.: Site map of the Quintinshill tragedy (above), and photoes of the wrecked railway vehicles (source: here, here and here).
18/06/1915-01/12/1915: AQUITANIA, as a troop transport, carries 6,000 troops per voyage (about 30,000 in total) for the operation against the Dardanelles from Liverpool to Gallipoli in 3 rounds.
Table 2.: Troop transport routes of AQUITANIA during operations at Gallipoli.
Figs. 59.-61.: AQUITANIA as a troop transport in Mudros, Greece, May of 1915. Note that the front of the superstructure still wears the original white paint (source: here, here and here).
Fig. 62.: AQUITANIA as a troop transport. Painting of Norman Wilkinson (source).
21/06/1915: The new commander of the ship is Charles Appleton Smith (1864-1928), one of the legendary captains of the First World War British merchanst marine (after the war he will be the first commander of BERENGARIA).
25/06/1915: AQUITANIA sets sail from Liverpool. In addition to his own crew of 1,000 men, 6,000 soldiers (of the 32th brigade assembled from the 9th West Yorkshire, 6th Yorkshire, 8th West Reading, 6th Yorkshire and Lancaster Regiments) to Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli operational theatre. During the World War, this was the largest troop transport operation carried out by a single ship on a single route (this performance will be surpassed only by the JUSTICIA ex-STATENDAM, when on 06.12.1917 she transported 12,000 Chinese workers on board, who recruited for work behind the front, this however, does not count as wartime troop transport record, since the Chinese workers are not combattants).
03/07/1915: AQUITANIA leaves Liverpool for Mudros with 5,000 soldiers on board. On July 5, she narrowly avoids the attack of the German submarine UB-8, whose torpedo passes barely fifty feet (15 m) behind the ship. AQUITANIA will fortunately arrive in Mudros on 10th of July.
30/08/1915: After the troops disembarked, the ship returned to England, where she was converted into a hospital ship (H.M.H.S. AQUITANIA) following an urgent call from the orders of the British forces at Gallipoli. The £63,000 worth of work will be carried out by the crew in 18 hours without sleep or stoppages (they only break for meals), thus preparing the ship to transport up to 2,500 wounded to England at a time.
Soldiers wounded in the various theaters of operations in the Middle East are transported by smaller passenger ships to Mudros on the island of Lemnos, Turkey, from where the large transatlantic ocean liners - AQUITANIA, BRITANNIC and MAURETANIA - take them to England. The extremely coal-hungry ships can coal only if absolutely necessary and only at a military base (typically in Malta). As coal supplies at Mudros are reserved specifically for the Navy, the hospital ships are refueled before the ourward leg of the journey (when they are still largely empty), so that the wounded and sick can return to the UK as quickly as possible after embarking. (For troop transport ships, they follow the reverse logic. Since the ships are usually empty on the homeward leg of the journey, speed is not a matter of survival after they leave the immediate danger zone in front of the Strait of Otranto - in the mouth of the Adriatic Sea, controlled by the Austro-Hungraian Navy -, so they can also refuel on the homeward bound).
Table 3.: Voyages of the hospital ship AQUITANIA.
Figs. 62.-64.: Above left: AQUITANIA during repainting as a hospital ship (source). The Ocean liner in the background is the MAURETANIA. Above right: the British submarine E11 in front of the hospital ship AQUITANIA (source). Below: The hospital ships H.M.H.S. AQUITANIA and H.M.H.S. MAURETANIA photographed from Quarr Abbey of the Isle of Wight (source).
Fig. 65.: "The mighty and the strong" - H.M. Hospital Ship Aquitania being escorted by a torpedo boat destroyer.Painting of Will Jeneway from 1917 (source).
15/03/1916: The AQUITANIA anchored in Naples on its way from Mudros to England takes over wounded from the hospital ship NEURALIA.
28/03/1916: Captain Edgar Theophilus Britten (1874-1936) takes command of the ship.
10/04/1916: The ship is decommissioned (the operation against the Dardanelles ends on 9 January 1916, but the island of Lemnos, located only 50 km from the operational area, remained under British control until the end of the war). Cunard orders a complete renovation at Harland & Wolff. A small, closed wheelhouse is built on top of the command bridge.
10/09/1916: AQUITANIA at Liverpool.
21/11/1916-30/01/1917: To replace the BRITANNIC, which ran into a mine and sank, the government again uses the AQUITANIA as a hospital ship, which - after expanding her capacity - is made suitable for the transport of 4,100 wounded.
A total of twenty-two British or Empire merchant vessels were employed as hospital ships at some time during the Gallipoli campaign, among them the three 'great liners', the AQUITANIA, BRITANNIC and MAURETANIA. The AQUITANIA was, in fact, the longest serving of these large hospital ships at the Dardanelles, continuing in this role until December 1917.
23/12/1916: AQUITANIA at Southampton.
30/11/1917: After the entry of the United States into the war on April 6, the conversion of the ship into a troop transport was again raised in order to carry the American Expeditionary Force to Europe.
01/01/1918: The ship is re-entered into the naval register, but it will only start its actual military service (the first troop transport voyage) after another suitable conversion, in March.
07/03/1918: A meeting is held under the chairmanship of Vice Admiral William Sowden Sims (1858-1936), Chief of Staff of the US Navy, Commander of the US Naval Forces operating in European waters Tasker Howard Bliss (1953-1930) Commander of the Army General and US Ground Forces John Joseph With the participation of General Pershing (1860-1948), the commander of the American Expeditionary Force sent to Europe, and Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker (1871-1937) in the matter of transporting the American army to Europe. At the meeting, the Minister of Defense determines the purpose and method of further use of AQUITANIA:
„Two divisions per month will be dispatched commencing April 1st. Dispatching of two divisions per month is dependent upon full utilization of all commercial space used heretofore also upon use of AQUITANIA, MAURETANIA commencing early in April. All American cargo-tonnage will have to be withdrawn for use in maintaining this increased force. It is important that English and French understand that for America to furnish two combatant divisions per month will require an increased number of troops to be dispatched through England, also the handling of troops and convoys promptly in ports of disembarkation.”
„Arrange for schedule of regular direct sailing U.S.S. LEVIATHAN, MAURETANIA, AQUITANIA, and OLYMPIC. These ships to run on four-week complete turn-around carrying each minimun of 5,000 troops and sailing on schedule similar to that of American Liners, destination Southampton, to be furnished destroyer escort, running regardless of the moon in order to keep schedule, routed and running like U.S.S. LEVIATHAN. Owing to extreme urgency getting troops to Front, War Department, while expecting every protection it is reasonably possibly to give the matter (of) escorts, it is willing (to) assume every increased risk to personnel resulting from running and routing these ships on schedule to destination Southampton.”
07/03/1918-31/01/1919: AQUITANIA makes a total of 9 troop transport trips, during which it transports about 47,867 soldiers to Europe. He broke the record for the wartime troop transport, which he also set, in 1918, when he transported 8,000 soldiers from America to Europe at the same time.
Table 4.: Transatlantic troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in the First World War. Table data based on the sources of book series "American Expeditionary Forces: General Headquarters, Armies, Army Corps, Services of Supply, and Separate Forces." and other publications.
Figs. 66.-69.: AQUITANIA troop transport with geometric - so-called dazzle - paint coat after the US entry into the war (source: here, here, here and here).
Fig. 70.: AQUITANIA under escort of the American destroyers. Painting by Burnell Poole (source).
The so-called "dazzle painting" developed in the First World War was a unique solution to reduce the effectiveness of attacks against ships. From the records of Vegetius, we know that Julius Caesar already painted his scout ships blue-green off the coast of Britain, during the Gallic Wars, thus making it difficult to perceive. This practice prevailed until the First World War: ships embarking on open sea operations were painted in the colors of the sea and sky (blue-green or gray-blue depending on the season and climate), and coastal defense ships in the colors of the coastal background (white and straw yellow in the foreground of rocky shores, olive green in the foreground of the shores covered with woody and bushy plants), even though they knew that it was impossible to hide the ships perfectly. However, after the naval battle of Jutland in 1916, the Germans gave up hope of achieving success in naval warfare with surface ships, and therefore renewed unrestricted submarine warfare, which had been suspended due to international outrage over the sinking of the LUSITANIA. In the first quarter of 1917, more than 500 merchant ships were sunk, in April alone 13 ships were destroyed every single day! When there was barely enough bread grain left for the population and the army throughout Great Britain, it became clear that a change had to be made. The change was the dazzling painting, which was the result of the work of several people. In 1892, the American painter and nature diver Handerson Thayer Abbott was the first to describe the phenomena , later named after him asThayer's law, the effect of the color schemes of the animal world (the light undercoat and the dark upper coat), according to which disruptive (disturbing, breaking up, disrupting) coloring has a high contrast with patterns cover the inner features or break up the contours (make them more difficult to perceive) of the animal (especially the "softening" of the edges creates an illusion based on a false sense of depth). In the Spanish-American War of 1898, Thayer was already looking for the possibilities of using this for military purposes, but only the British naturalist Sir John Graham Kerr, who knew his work well, found the opportunity to do so, when he proposed in a letter to Winston Churchill - the first lord of the admiralty - on September 24, 1914 introducing advantages of disruptive coloring (breaking up the contours with patches of strongly contrasting tones) for the protection of warships, "completely breaking the continuity of their contours with white bands" in order to make artillery spotting from a long distance impossible. Although Kerr's ideas were used on several ships, he was unable to exert lasting influence as an outsider, and his proposals were discarded after Churchill's resignation in 1915. They were brought back to the public consciousness only in 1917 by the British naval painter Norman Wilkinson, a volunteer lieutenant of the Navy, who was able to represent his own interests much more convincingly (claiming that Kerr wanted to make the ships invisible, while he was only trying to deceive the enemy). The purpose of the painting proposed by him was actually exactly the same as that of Kerr and Thayer, that is, not to hide the ship in the background (camouflage), but to deceive (confuse, dazzle) the attacker regarding the details, namely the type, size and speed of the ship, as well as its direction. The bold shapes used on the bow and stern of the ship broke the shape of the ship, shortened it, or swapped the two ends. The slanted bands and lines painted on the superstructures suggested that the characteristic funnels sloped in the other direction. The curves painted on the hull imitated a false stern or the bow wave created by fast moving ships. In the London building of the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, a special Dazzle Section was set up for Wilkinson, where the many, many visual artists assigned under his supervision developed a total of hundreds of disturbing patterns painted on small wooden models, which were then spuned around on a record player and tested through a periscope. The proven patterns were finally used between May 1917 and October 1918 on about 4,000 merchant ships and 400 warships. The procedure has also been adopted by the United States, France and Italy. In 1918, the Admiralty analyzed shipping losses, which showed that ships with dazzling paint were attacked more often than unpainted - 1.47% versus 1.12% - (suggesting that their gaudy colors increased their visibility), but fewer of the ships attacked in this way sank than unpainted ones - 43% against 54% - (that is, the targeting was really confused and disturbed). The Admiralty investigated the question of precedence after the war, but Kerr argued that the principle was created by nature, he had only observed it, so finally Wilkinson was recognized as the inventor of the method, and then he was awarded a £2,000 reward.
05/03/1918: Captain James Thomas Walter Charles (1865-1928) takes command of the ship.
09/10/1918: After the ship leaves Portsmouth for Brest, one of AQUITANIA's American escort ships, the destroyer USS SHAW's rudder fails during the mandatory zigzag maneuver, and the warship drifts to the right in front of the ocean liner within the braking distance, which wades through the destroyer, cutting about 27 m-s long section off the bow of the 96 m long ship. The destroyer remains afloat, however, 14 of its 99 crew lose their lives and the others are evacuated. With AQUITANIA under strict orders not to stop under any circumstances, the destroyer returned to Portsmouth, 40 miles away, under her own power, sailed by a skeleton crew of 21, for repairs until the end of May 1919.
Figs. 71.-78.: On the left top, center and bottom the USS SHAW and her wreck (source: here, here and here), on the right top USS SHAW in Portsmouth after the accident (source: here and here), on the right center the wreck in the dock during repairs (source: here and here), and on the right bottom the destroyer with her new bow after the reconstruction (source).
Fig. 79: Collision between AQUITANIA and USS SHAW (source).
In the Interwar Period:
19.02.1919: On her first voyage after the armistice, AQUITANIA contributes to the repatriation of American troops from Liverpool, England and Brest, France to New York. In this service, she makes three round-trips until July 1919.
28/02/1919: AQUITANIA sinks the cargo ship LORD DUFFERIN in New York.
After sailing from Brest to New York in six days (at a speed of 22 knots) with 5,800 soldiers and many prominent American civilians on board, the AQUITANIA collides east of the Statue of Liberty with the 4,664-ton Canadian freighter LORD DUFFERIN, built in 1898, which is carrying sugar to the city of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. In the collision, the ocean liner sheared off an approximately 64-foot (19.5 m) long section of the cargo ship's stern, causing the rear hold to fill with water and the cargo ship to sink in 11 m of water in 15 minutes. One person loses his life (George Eperus, a 40-year-old greaser from New York, who was seriously injured by the metal structure that collapsed when the stern came off, bent back and forth, so he could only move slowly, and when he fell into the water, he drowned). Several members of the cargo ship's 44-person crew are also injured, but only slightly. 27 people are taken by the tugs and guard ships accompanying the ocean liner, the others remain on the superstructures of the ship sitting on the bottom of the water.
The captain of the AQUITANIA, James Thomas Walter Charles - who, after the war months, had resumed command since February 19, 1919 - told the press that "The LORD DUFFERIN anchored just in the fairway on the starboard side of the ocean liner's bow, turning with her stern towards the big ship, which was just trying to avoid another cargo ship, so as not to run over it, while trying to leave the stern of the DUFFERIN free, but the strong tide pushed the bow of the AQUITANIA towards it, so it was impossible to avoid a collision", at whose danger the African American soldiers crowded on the foredeck tried to draw the attention of the crews of AQUITANIA and DUFFERIN by shouting loudly - useless. The AQUITANIA, which was traveling at a speed of 6 knots, was not damaged in the collision, and most of its passengers only realized that their ship had been involved in a collision when the turbines were switched into reverse.
Judge Julius Marshuetz Mayer, the chief judge of the Court of the Southern District of New York (who 6 months earlier had ruled in the lawsuit against Cunard Line due to the sinking of the torpedoed LUSITANIA in 1915) only on 12.06.1920 gives authorization to the charterer of the freighter, for Gaston, Williams & Wigmore, to initiate a $1,700,000 damages action against Cunard.
The damaged DUFFERIN is refloated by the salvage company Merritt-Chapman & Scott Corporation with the help of floating caissons and taken to the Todd Shipbuilding and Repair Company in Robins Dry Dock, Brooklyn, where, in the absence of the original plans, a completely new welded stern section is designed and built on the riveted steel ship (since the old stern section, which was wrecked and cut off, cannot be saved). All in all, the job, which took just under 18 days, was the largest welding job ever completed at the factory founded in 1916 (for this reason, it also made it into the newspapers, as the work was also visited by a Japanese delegation in America on a study tour investigating the applicability of new welding processes in shipbuilding).
Figs. 80.-86.: On the left is the map of the accident and its surroundings. On the right above is the profile drawing of LORD DUFFERIN (source), middle is the half-sunk LORD DUFFERIN (source), and below the freighter after being towed to the shipyard (source: here, here, here and here).
Figs. 87.-92.: On the left above, the AQUITANIA after leaving the quarantine port - photographed next to the ROCHAMBEAU repatriating American soldiers who also fought in Europe - preparing to dock, less than a minute before she ran over the Canadian freighter LORD DUFFERIN, which cannot be seen in the picture due to the cover of the French ocean liner (source). On the left below left is the reverse of the image showing the arrival of the AQUITANIA, shown on the right above, with a reference to the African-American soldiers returning home on the ship (source). On the left below right the officers of the 377th Infantry Division—left to right: Lt. C. L. Abbot, Capt. Joseph L. Lowe, Lt. A. R. Fisher (with the Distinguished Service Cross—the second highest military honor in the United States) and Capt. E. White—aboard the AQUITANIA in New York (source). On the right above and below, AQUITANIA immediately after the accident, the visible discoloration on the bow is a sign of the collision (source: here, here and here).
Figs. 93.-95.: The damaged LORD DUFFERIN at the site of Robins Dry Dock és Repair Co. (source: here, here and here).
14/08/1919: The ship is transferred to the Southampton-Cherbourg-New York route.
1919.11.-1920.06.: Extensive renovation at the Armstrong-Withworth Shipyard in Newcastle. The boilers and coal bunkers will be converted, the Midland Bank will open a branch in first class, in the "D" deck lobby, where an Information Point will also be placed. On the navigating bridge, an IV. type Sperry gyrocompass is installed, which was then used for the first time on a commercial ship.
The gyrocompass is a device that uses the law of conservation of momentum instead of the magnetic principle, and consists of three high-speed flywheels suspended on cardan shafts, in which the axes can rotate freely while maintaining their original direction. Since the freely suspended rotating bodies try to ensure that the torque of the Coriolis force acting on their axis (resulting from the rotation of the Earth) is zero, the gyroscope turns in the north-south direction, so it can also be used for direction determination. On ships built with a large amount of metal, magnetic compasses are unreliable, so there was a great interest in gyroscopes, which was first satisfied by Hermann Anschütz-Kämpfe from Kiel, the creator of the first commercially available, functional gyroscope based on his patent registered in 1908. The American Elmer Ambrose Sperry also used Anschütz-Kämpfe's results to start the production of a gyroscope in 1910. Its were regularized by the American Navy, but in May 1914 it also sold a model to the German Navy. Upon learning of this, Anschütz decided to sue Sperry for patent infringement. The lawsuit was initiated before the Berlin court, which appointed a local expert experienced in both physical-technical and patent matters in the person of Albert Einstein, a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences from 1914, an expert of the Swiss Patent Office between 1902-1907. In the lawsuit, Sperry argued that Anschütz-Kämpfe's patent contained nothing new compared to a similar invention in 1885 by Marinus Gerardus van den Bos, who, however, did not have a valid patent. However, Einstein proved in the trial that the stabilization system included in the Anschütz patent was an improvement over the original van den Bos mechanism, and he even came to the conclusion that Sperry's system was essentially the same. Based on Einstein's opinion, on November 16, 1915, the court ruled in Anschütz's favor and fined Sperry 300,000 marks, and at the same time forbade him to sell devices using any element of the Anschütz patent. Sperry ignored the ruling and sold his equipment widely to the Entente Allies.
25/12/1919: During the renovation, at a cost of £400,000 (£22.5 million at today's exchange rate), AQUITANIA's boilers were transformed from coal- to oil-burner ones, and the coal bunkers are converted to store fuel oil. While 350 people served with coal-burner boilers, 50 people are sufficient for the oil-burners.
Figs. 96.-98.: AQUITANIA on the River Tyne in April 1920 (looking downriver), moored to the wharf of the Walker, Armstrong and Whitworth Shipyard. The upper left picture shows the lower bridge windows removed in that stage of restoration (source) and the upper right picture shows an 'M' class submarine next to the liner, fitted with a 30.5 cm battleship gun (source). It is interesting that the plates of the liner's breakwater can be seen painted white on the tip of the bow, which was only painted black again in 1920, before the first post-war voyage to America. Due to the narrowness of the Tyne river, it was not possible to turn the AQUITANIA into the opposit direction, so it was only possible to take her to the sea by towing backwards (source).
19/07/1920: The first post-war civilian voyage on the Liverpool-New York route. On this first voyage, 2,433 passengers bought tickets for the ship, whose arrival in New York is filmed and shown in the movie "Manhatta".
25/07/1920: AQUITANIA's first arrival in New York after the war, now as an oil-burner ship. Shortly after her departure, an accident occurred in one of the boiler rooms off the coast of Ireland: a shut-off valve exploded from one of the boilers, killing the sixth engineer, Seymour Bannerman Barkway of Liverpool, a Scotsman. One of the heaters, James Curran, suffered minor injuries. Barkway was buried at sea immediately after the incident. This is the third (and last) time that the ship has been involved in a fatal accident (the first was the collision with the destroyer USS SHAW, the second was the cargo ship LORD DUFFERIN).
Figs. 99.-101.: The AQUITANIA arrives in New York in November 1919 on its last voyage as a coal-burner (courtesy of Peter Könczöl). Pictures of the old coal and the new oil-burner boilers of the AQUITANIA in the report on the conversion in Scientific American (source). After an eight-month absence, AQUITANIA arrives in New York for the first time, on that very day when the 13th America's Cup sailing race is scheduled to start. However, the yachts RESOLUTE and SHAMROCK cannot start due to the stormy weather at Sandy Hook. The photograph below was taken of the race committee boat after the two yachts had departed behind the AQUITANIA towards the lightship. The picture clearly shows that the ocean liner runs with its characteristic firmness in the rather strong sea waves (source).
26/07/1921: Fire on board MAURETANIA, Southampton. They can control the flames only after 12 hours. 50 cabins are completely burned out, the first class saloon, the library and the smoking room are badly damaged. AQUITANIA will remain Cunard's only fast steamer on the North Atlantic route during the months-long extensive repair. Consequently she crossed the ocean 30 times by the end of the year (making 15 round trips) and set an annual passenger transport record: in 1921 she carried a total of 60,587 passengers (26,332 of them in third class), i.e. an average of more than 2,000 passengers.
11/08/1921: Captain William Robert Duncan Irvine (1868-1933) takes command of the ship.
19/10/1922: AQUITANIA breaks through a storm wave 24.4 m high in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Figs. 102.-103.: Storm on the ocean. Portrayal of the ship and photography from AQUITANIA's deck (sources: here and here).
30/04/1923: Judge Willis van Devanter of the United States Supreme Court rules in a review case brought by the Cunard Line in connection with the confiscation of liquor stored for the eastern voyage in sealed store rooms of Cunard's ships in connection with the Prohibition.
The precedent for the lawsuit was the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (the Volstead Act), which entered into force on January 16, 1919, which - as a result of the success of the temperance movement, which had been fighting alcoholism for decades, which was recognized as one of the root causes of poverty - became general from January 17, 1920 prohibited the manufacture, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages within the territory of the USA and within 3 miles (5.5 km) of the coast.
Non-US flagged ocean liners (registered abroad) were not subject to the law on the high seas, but upon entering the territorial waters of the United States, they had to comply with American laws on board, including rules about the ban on the production, import, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Foreign shipping companies initially tried to comply with the restrictions when they reached American territorial waters by that the ships crew closed and stamped with the seals of the British Customs the liquor stock of the ships that ensures the service of the passengers during the return leg of voyages (back to Europe), but the American authorities ban this practice - under the pressure of the American shipping companies, which could only operate "dry" ships so they were constantly losing passengers due to the "wet" ships of the European companies. From October 6, 1922, the official seals protecting the locked stock were reviewed and broken, the entire stock was confiscated, and fines were even imposed on shipping companies, which appealed to the court, which, however, rejected their request.
The Supreme Court proceedings took place as a result of the shipping companies' appeal against the decisions of the New York District Court rejecting a hearing on the merits in the case of confiscation and fines imposed on 10 foreign and 2 American ships (travelling outside US territorial waters). In the case of the 10 foreign ships, the Supreme Court upheld the first-instance court's decision to reject a hearing on the merits, but changed it in the case of the 2 American-flagged ships.
The Supreme Court had to decide two questions:
1) Based on the legislator's intent and the grammatical interpretation of the law, can it be ruled out that the amount of liquor on board a foreign ship arriving at an American port is considered as an import if the liquor is neither taken off the ship, nor sold while the ship is in the port? The court answered this question in the negative (that is, it is not excluded that such case is also considered as an import from the point of view of the application of the law). In justifying its judgment, the court emphasized that the October 6, 1922 amendment to the implementing rules of the Volstead Act was intended to have the exact effect of ending the sale of intoxicating liquor to American citizens on foreign ocean liners as well, therefore it is illegal if a foreign vessel brings intoxicating liquor into a United States port even if the stock of liquor is sealed and the importation is for the sole purpose of using the liquor on the return leg of the voyage.
2) Does the Prohibition Act apply to US-flagged ships on the high seas (areas not under the jurisdiction of any state)? The court - contrary to the logic of its own answer to question 1) - gave a negative answer to this question as well. According to the court, therefore, while foreign-flagged ships arriving at American ports are prohibited from having alcohol on board, American ships are not prohibited from doing so in international waters (saying that it is only a "metaphor" that the ships are in the territory of the flag state would qualify). This part of the judgment was in complete contradiction with the Volstead Act, according to which the captain of a ship under the supervision of the United States Shipping Board cannot legally possess alcoholic beverages even on the high seas, and with the statement of the Attorney General that the law applies to persons traveling on American ships, whether they are in American waters, or on the high seas, or in foreign ports.
02/06/1923: As a result of the Devanter judgment, the stock of spirits locked on board the AQUITANIA bound for America is released, which is distributed free of charge to the passengers rather than being confiscated by the American customs authorities. The ship's captain, James Thomas Walter Charles - who had been in command again since August 30, 1921 - later remembered the incident in his diary: "We are doing the best we can ... A thousand passengers are drinking beer as fast as they can, but their capacity is unequal to the supply and so we are throwing overboard 20 barrels." Since there was no alcohol left on the ship that could be offered on the return leg of the voyage (only alcohol for medical purposes), the passengers got used to carrying the amount they needed in their luggage (there was a passenger who had no less than 40 bottles of whiskey packaged), and the result was the development of the practice of private cocktail parties held in the cabins... The purpose of the Devanter judgment was obviously not to enforce the principles of law, but to favor the American shipping companies, which demanded support from the state because they were constantly lose passengers to European competitors. However, the arbitrary judicial decision that violates the law and flouts all its legality was not able to mitigate the problems caused by the ban, so finally in 1933 President Roosevelt relaxed the law and allowed drinks with an alcohol content of less than 4% - beers, light wines - distribution and consumption in the USA. And by the end of 1933, the general prohibition on alcohol for the entire United States was abolished.
21/09/1923: Papyrus, a British thoroughbred racehorse and breeding stallion, Derby winner, goes to New York aboard AQUITANIA against Kentucky Derby winner Zev. The special train carrying the horse stops next to the ship. The animal is shipped in together with his stablemate Bargold, the stable cat Tinker, and jockey Steve Donoghue. It is the first time a British horse has been sent across the Atlantic for a single race. The ship has never had such a special "passenger". To accommodate Papyrus on board, a separate "cabin" must be built with specially fitted, padded wall covering. The bizarre story reaches the press. An Australian newspaper reports: "A wireless message from the Cunard liner Aquitania, says the racehorse Papyrus was not disturbed by the heavy weather. He is being exercised around a padded cabin, ridden by a stable boy." A month later, on October 20, 1923, Zev finally won the $100,000 race at Belmont Park by five lengths. The race was later considered a farce by many, as Papyrus was not properly shod on the wet ground, while Zev was also wearing mud caulks. The owner of Papyrus nevertheless admitted defeat.
Figs. 104.: Papyrus boards a ship. Boarding the racehorse in the third class (source).
…/03/1924: Two fractures are discovered on hull plates between the portholes of "E" and "F" decks, fore of the ship.
26/05/1924: American President Coolidge signs the Johnston-Reed Act, with which the United States re-regulates immigration and establishes yearly quotas for each ethnic group on the number of foreigners that can be admitted annually, with a maximum of 2% of the number of people belonging to the given ethnic group according to the 1890 census data. All this has a drastic effect on emigrant traffic: while the number of third-class passengers carried on board the AQUITANIA exceeded 26,000 in 1921, by 1925 their number had dropped to less than a third, to 8,200. As an immediate measure, the number of crew is reduced (from the original 1,200 to 850), but it becomes clear that the function of the ship's interior and the assignment of each department must also be thoroughly redesigned.
.../02/1925: They notice that the rivets of the plate doubling used there have become loose in a previous repair place.
The use of plate doubling - double plates, or doublers - became routine in temporary ship repairs until it became the preferred method for repairing plate corrosion structural damage on ships, as it was a relatively simple and low-cost solution, versus the more expensive permanent plate-insertion repair. However, evaluations of the different stresses, buckling strength, corrosion types and rates, seam types, and fatigue and fracture properties affecting the double plating were never performed, so due to the lack of performance data, repairs with doublers were considered only a temporary solution throughout. Against them was the fact that the water inevitably seeping between the overlapping plates caused aggressive rusting, which could not be prevented, since it was not possible to de-rust or paint between the two plates.
1926: Sir Percy Bates, director of the Cunard Line, proposes the idea of building 2 new larger and faster ships to replace the company's 3 aging ocean liners - MAURETANIA, AQUITANIA and BERENGERIA. The main direction of development is increasing size and speed (size increases comfort, as the larger the ship, the less vulnerable due to elements, while speed shortens the journey time). Oil burning shortens the stay in port to 18 hours. Thus, by reducing the crossing time below 5 days, the work of the previous 3 ships can now be done by 2.
1927: The ship is remodeled: accommodations are created for first-, second-, and tourist-third-class passengers on board. On decks "B" and "C", several first-class cabins are combined to create larger, more comfortable suites. In connection with this, the 246 m2 "B"-deck raised promenade (the deck-chair terrace) will be built in, in order to increase the floor space of 24 "B" deck cabins by extending them towards the sides of the ship. The 131 original first-class suites of the "B" deck (2 private dining rooms and 4 private verandahs have also been eliminated) will be combined into 97 suites. In connection with this, overhead lights, providing natural light and direct ventilation for the interior (windowless) cabins of deck "C" will be eliminated on the deck "B" raised promenade. However, this will not be a problem, as the innermost row of cabins on deck "C" will be eliminated (the deck's 263 original suites will be consolidated into 139 cabins).
Table 5.: The berths of the ship after the conversion, according to classes.
…/03/1928: Weakened rivets are again detected in the bow of the ship near the location identified in 1925.
16/07/1928: Captain James Thomas Walter Charles dies as AQUITANIA arrives at Southampton.
According to the rules of the Cunard Line, he would be retire in two weeks - after his 63rd birthday... Passengers and officers notice that he spends most of the journey on the bridge. At first, he explains this with his obligations due to the short turnaround time in New York and the sea fog, but he becomes more and more sensitive at dinners and other social programs, and for the last two days he doesn't even come down, he stays on the bridge all the time. Before leaving New York with the AQUITANIA, he vowed to the journalists inquiring about his retirement that he would be happy when he could finally settle down on the mainland and enjoy the blessings of the secure income he had created (in addition to his £4,000 a year pension, he also owned handsomely profitable copper mine shares, which he purchased on the advice of Simon Guggenheim, regular passenger of the AQUITANIA). The ship's doctor also warns that he needs rest, yet he does not allow second captain Dolphin to take the ship to Cherbourg on the last leg of the voyage. Instead, he spends an extraordinary amount of time on duty, and at the urging of his officers, he only agrees to rest when the pilot is arrived to steer the ship to Southampton. But even then, he does not go to his cabin, only to the chart room adjacent to the wheel house, where there is only one couch available. He spends barely a few minutes inside when an urgent bell ring from the map room alerts the officers that something is wrong. Two officers rush into the room, where they find Captain Charles lying on the floor in great pain from hemorrhage. During the crossing of the channel, he receives medication for pain relief, and his wife is informed about what happened by radio, so that when the AQUITANIA docks, she is already there. However, the captain is unable to recognize her or speak to her. He is immediately taken to the Southampton hospital by ambulance, but there they can only confirm his death. The flag of the AQUITANIA is lowered to half-mast, while the passengers are still busy with things related to boarding out.
Captain Charles spent 48 of his 62 years at sea and made 726 transatlantic crossings aboard various ships. In March 1918 he was appointed captain of the AQUITANIA. She transported almost 48,000 American troops for the rest of the war. He was knighted in 1920, and from 1921 he was commodore of the Cunard Line. Out of the ship's 31 captains, he served for the longest period.
Figs. 105.-107.: Death news of Captain James Thomas Walter Charles (sources: here, here and here).
.../01/1929: Weakened rivets are again observed in the bow
22/07/1929: The new German ocean liner BREMEN conquers the Blue Ribbon from Cunard's MAURETANIA, leading to further decline in popularity.
24/10/1929: The New York Stock Exchange crash. This burst the financial bubble of the "roaring twenties". 11,000 of the 25,000 banks in the USA bankrupted, all the savings of the depositors were lost. By 1933, all stock market investments lost 92% of their value (the stock market index fell back to the value of 1896 when stock market trading began). In 1932, 273,000 families were evicted, and by 1934, the farms of more than 1,000,000 families were auctioned off due to their debts. In the country with 126,000,000 inhabitants, 13,000,000 were unemployed and 34,000,000 people lived without a fixed income. All this lasted until the American government, following the principles of the English John Maynard Keynes, absorbed the mass of the unemployed with a large public demand-stimulation program (significant government investments) called the New Deal, and generated new demand in order to stimulate the economy. Until then, however, AQUITANIA carries fewer and fewer passengers, and its transatlantic voyages become unprofitable.
25/03/1930: The new German ocean liner EUROPA (sister ship of BREMEN) conquers the Blue Ribbon from her running mate, which will once again become the in-house trophy of German ocean liners for a while
12/05/1930: AQUITANIA gets new propellers and rudder.
The new rudder will be forged and assembled in Darlington in the north of the UK, and when it is finished it will be loaded onto a open rail car on May 8 to be transported by train to Middlesbrough and then by ship to Southampton. Its 19 x 28 ft (6.0 x 8.5 m) rudder plate weighs 54 tons, and due to its size, extends more than 13 ft (4 m) beyond the edge of the rail car, with its farthest point even on the far side of the adjacent track. For the duration of the transport, both tracks, as well as the loading ramps and the passenger platforms next to the overhanging part of the rudder plate, must be closed to traffic, and the signal poles between the tracks must be removed along the entire railroad. In order for the rudder plate to rise high enough above the ramps and platforms, it must be raised 12 feet (3.7 m) on the rail car. This raises the center of gravity of the huge piece of steel so high that any swaying of the rail car can increase the overhang of the rudder plate or overturn the car, threatening to derail the train.
Figs. 108.-110.: The preservation of the ship's operable condition over such a long period of time was due to persistent and professional maintenance. The two images above were taken when the train carrying the rudder passed through Eagles Cliff station in Stockton-on-Tees, where measurements taken along the entire route before the journey began showed that there was barely a 3 cm gap remained between the signal post and the overhanging rudder (source: here and here). The screw exchange carried out on May 12, 1930. In the foreground, a dismantled and severely damaged screw (with a chipped blade) laid on the floor plate of the floating dock, behind it is the new one currently being installed (source).
28/05/1930: The first of the two new ships proposed by Sir Percy Bates in 1926, the QUEEN MARY, is ordered (with a delay due to the Great Depression).
10/09/1930: AQUITANIA survives a strong sea storm - hurricane - in the Atlantic Ocean unscathed.
19/12/1930: The ship arrives at Southampton after another crossing in an extremely violent sea storm. Upon inspection, it turns out that several "B" deck supports are broken on both the starboard and port sides, necessitating welding and plate doubling. During the repair, it was determined that the stress on the supports was increased by the new walls that were installed on the edge of the original elevated section of the promenade deck during the expansion of the first-class suites in 1926. Signs of material fatigue are observed on the superstructure near the expansion joints.
04/30/1931: A crack is discovered in the shell plating starting next to one of the portholes near the "F" deck plate doubling, which eventually gradually extends to the entire frame-space from frame 235 to 242.
21/10/1931: The second class is abolished.
20/11/1931: AQUITANIA arrives at Southampton after another crossing in very bad weather. After her inspection, it was determined that the hull was damaged in several places: the hull structure was severely strained in the area of the fore and aft peak tanks, as a result of which 900 rivets had to be replaced, and two shell plates on the starboard side were broken, and the bilge keel "requires attention".
Fig. 111.: AQUITANIA's bow cuts through storm waves (source).
11/12/1931: During the Great Depression, Cunard was unprofitable for the first time in many years. Construction of the QUEEN MARY is suspended. The British government is offering Cunard a loan on the condition that it merges with White Star Line, which is in irretrievable financial crisis, as the government says there is no room for two major British lines competing against each other in the North-Atlantic trade, during the growing competition from foreign liners.
From 1932: Due to stagnant passenger traffic, the ship makes cheaper Mediterranean excursions in the winter times to maintain financial balance. Cunard's "Big Three" (AQUITANIA, BERENGARIA and MAURETANIA) are slowly became obsolete, the company is planning to build more modern, newer, bigger and faster ships - QUEEN MARY and QUEEN ELIZABETH - but the protracted crisis is delaying construction, thus (while her running mates are gradually dismantled) the AQUITANIA gets a little more respite (until the launch of the QE originally planned for 1940).
From 1933: In addition to the Mediterranean excursions, the New York-Bermuda route is added.
In November, all the communal spaces will be renovated and a completely new theater will be added to the ship's services.
During the annual inspection, a break is identified on both sides directly under the port- and starboardside wing of the bridge, 30.5 cm next to the opening of the forward boarding door. On the port side, a large 76.2 cm long break is also discovered on the plate doubling and on the upper plate row of the hull. On the right side, a similar fracture is observed, affecting the upper plate row, but not the plate doubling. Broken plates are replaced, and the affected doors are permanently removed and closed by plates to strengthen the hull.
The damage seen at that location is related to the ship's accident in 1915 (according to other sources, 1919), when the AQUITANIA ran aground on the Mersey River. A Board of Trade surveyor recalls that the ship was then "very badly damaged to the bottom...and no doubt severely strained near the bridge". AQUITANIA's structure at this point "showed signs of weakness for a long time", although it is debated whether the spanking exacerbated a pre-existing problem or caused a weakening of the structure that did not become apparent until years later.
Figs. 112.-114.: The AQUITANIA's Mediterranean routes (source: Dr. Tamás Balogh © 2024). The liner in Egypt (source). A casual dance party on the promenade deck somewhere in the Mediterranean (source).
15/04/1933: After the first private screening held on January 5, Fox Studio presents the movie "Cavalcade", based on Noel Coward's play of the same name. The film presents the most important events of the 33 years between 1899 and New Year's Eve 1932 through the lives of the members of a fictitious British family, including the Boer Wars, the death of Queen Victoria, the TITANIC tragedy and the First World War. AQUITANIA serves as a model for the construction of the mock-up and scenery created to personify TITANIC in the film (between 0:57:30-1:01:45).
24/01/1934: AQUITANIA runs aground in the Solent, but is refloated the same day.
26/09/1934: Launching of QUEEN MARY. MAURETANIA departs New York for her final crossing. After return home she is withdrawn from the service, and in May 1935 she is sold for demolition (OLYPIMIC is taken out of service on April 12 and dismantled by the end of 1937). This makes the AQUITANIA the world's last four-funnelled ocean liner.
10/04/1935: AQUITANIA's biggest accident: during approach to Southampton on the end of a Mediterranean cruise, she runs aground in the Solent, at the Thorn Knoll buoy, which marking one of the outcrops of the Bramble Reef, which is mainly made of the logs of the ancient underwater forest and buried in sand, and she remains there for 26 hours, until finally she is pulled off the reef with the combined power of eleven tugboats. Despite the fact that the hull was standing on its own bottom for more than a full day, the AQUITANIA survives the incident almost unscathed and will soon be back in service (contemporary film newsreels: here and here).
15/05/1935: A storm with strong gusts of wind hits Southampton. The MAJESTIC, bound for America, is towed out of the dock without incident by tugs, but mooring cables on the rear, securing the AQUITANIA to the shore, break away and the ship, fixed at her bow, obeys the pressure of the wind, turns sideways in the dock, almost colliding with the ATLANTIS standing there. The accident can only be prevented by the quick intervention of nearby tugs.
Figs. 115.-116.: AQUITANIA on the reef (above). After the failure of the first attempt, the tugs change strategy and gather at the stern of AQUITANIA. In the high wind, the AQUITANIA, tearing its port ropes, swings out (source: here and here).
30/08/1935: The plates of the 28-meter rear section of the portside bilge keel require renovation (the damage was caused by the strain in January 1934 or April 1935, but remained unnoticed until then).
22/04/1936: The participants of the North Atlantic Shipping Conference decided that the first class of all passenger ships plying the North Atlantic Ocean would be called "cabin class" in the future.
North Atlantic shipping companies entered into various bilateral or multilateral agreements in the 19th century, depending on the circumstances. On a German proposal, permanent cooperation was established in 1908, creating the first North Atlantic Shipping Conference, in which most of the British, American and continental passenger shipping companies (except of the Cunard Line) were represented. The conference participants agreed on minimum first- and second-class fares and conditions, and at the same time concluded an agreement on the consolidation of third-class traffic in a common pool. The conference based in Jena (Germany) was dissolved at the outbreak of the First World War, but during the war some of the former members revived it in a narrower circle with its headquarters in Paris (France).
27/05/1936: Order of QUEEN ELIZABETH, second of two new ships proposed by Sir Percy Bates in 1926. AQUITANIA is planned to be scrapped when the new ship is handed over, which is predicted for 1940.
Fig. 117.: AQUITANIA departing from New York in 1937, photograph taken by David J. Kreines (sources). A contemporary color footage with the scene available here.
20/09/1938: During the inspection following the arrival of the AQUITANIA in Southampton, it was noticed that a fracture had developed in the upper row of stiffening plates, near the place of the 1931 repair, on the "B" deck amidships, crossing the line of riveting.
07/11/1938: Scrapping of BERENGARIA.
31/12/1938: The AQUITANIA, which left New York for a Christmas cruise to the West Indies, arrives at the American Virgin Islands with 674 passengers on board, where it drops anchor in the deep-water anchorage behind Hassel Island, where all the larger ships are able to station.
Figs. 118-120.: AQUITANIA in the Virgin Islands (sources: here, here and here).
In the Second World War:
05/09/1939: AQUITANIA arrives at Southampton (news of the outbreak of war received at sea on her way to England). Although she would have been scrapped in less than three months, she was still one of the three fastest British ships available for war duties (for ammunition- and troop transport), so the Admiralty intended to protect her by not allow to remain in Southampton, within range of German long range bombers, so they ordered her return to America. Hundreds of American citizens trapped in Europe apply for his journey.
10/09/1939: AQUITANIA leaves Southampton. Her superstructures and funnels are painted grey. A lot of furniture will be removed from the ship, which is usually suitable for transporting 3,230 passengers, so that 400 more passengers can be accommodated in the additional berths accommodated in their place. Since the Germans sank the passenger ship ATHENIA on September 3, dinner is served between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. so that it is completely dark on the ship in the evening. Even the windows were painted black, but it was still forbidden to turn on the lights after sunset.
Figs. 121-122.: As part of the extraordinary precautions due to the submarine threat, an escape ladder was installed in the well of the two-story high 1st class restaurant to speed up possible emergency evacuation (left), and 2 pieces of 15.2 cm guns against surface targets were placed on the stern deck (right). Sources: here and here.
23/09/1939: AQUITANIA leaves New York for Europe. She is photographed 50 miles east of Sandy Hook zigzagging toward the open ocean at high speed. She maintains a speed of about 24 knots during the journey and makes the crossing without any incident.
21/11/1939: AQUITANIA's second wartime military service begins with her transformation into a troop transport. After removing the furniture reminiscent of Victorian salons, the ship will be adapted to accommodate 7,400 soldiers, and then she will be sent to Halifax to transport Canadian troops to Europe.
During this crossing, an old destroyer from the reserves came out to meet her and signalled with an Aldis lamp, “FOUR FUNNEL SHIP PLEASE INDICATE.” On the bridge of the AQUITANIA, Captain George Gibbons turns to his own morse lamp operator in disbelief: “We are the only damned four-funnel ship in the world and that so-and-so wants our name. Tell him to read ‘The News of the World.’ ” But before the answer can send, another message received by light signals from the destroyer's zealous commander, in which he asking, “DO YOU REQUIRE AN ESCORT”? On board of the AQUITANIA, which is one of the fastest ships on the Atlantic, Gibbons, who is now really angry, signalls back only this short answer: “CAN YOU KEEP UP”? Then the propellers of the LUSITANIA's and the MAURETANIA's running mate rev up, and with huge waves, they propel the AQUITANIA forward, so that she quickly leaves the obsolete destroyer behind, which, as a farewell, lets out one last message: “YOUR FINE SPEED REQUIRES LITTLE PROTECTION.”
10/12/1939: AQUITANIA leaves Halifax for the Clyde estuary, arriving there on 17 December. On her subsequent troop transport voyages, she transported thousands of soldiers from Australia and New Zealand to the South-Eastern Asia and North Africa, then from America to Europe. Between December 1939 and June 1945, she completes a total of 105 crossings (72 in convoy, 33 independently).
Table 6.: Troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in 1939-1940.
03/09/1940: AQUITANIA at Southampton. Equipped with new 6-inch (15.2 cm) dual-purpose anti-surface and anti-aircraft armament, the ship then heads to Sydney, Australia to transport Australian and New Zealand troops to Egypt which is under German and Italian attack, and then to Singapore, New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) which are under Japanese attack.
19/04/1940: AQUITANIA anchors in Cape Town, where she takes on fuel oil again after being pumped out the previous day, in an effort to make her easier to be raised from a mud bank on which she ran aground 2 days before. The incident delayed her departure from Cape Town by 2 days, but did not prevent her from reaching Sydney in time to begin her next mission.
02/05/1940: AQUITANIA goes to Europe with the New Zealand convoy marked US.3., consisting of the oceanliners EMPRESS of BRITAIN, ANDES and EMPRESS of JAPAN. The convoy will be joined a few days later by the ocean liners MAURETANIA (II), QUEEN MARY and EMPRESS of CANADA with Australian troops. The 28th Maori Battalion, 5 ambulances, divisional supply and reinforcements and other units - 3,600 people including the crew - will be embarked on board of the AQUITANIA. They make use of every space, even accommodating soldiers two decks below the waterline (above the firemen's corridor, which is also filled with ammunition and engineering equipment). Fresh air only enters the windowless rooms through the upper deck vents. The northbound convoy is diverted to Cape Town before reaching Ceylon on 15 May due to the Nazi victory in Europe and the attacks on Suez.
16/05/1940: The "Million Dollar Convoy" arrives at the Clyde Estuary and anchors at Gourock. The soldiers were originally sent to supplement the British Expeditionary Force fighting in France, but they arrived too late: the Dunkirk evacuation had already been completed by the time they entered the port.
15/06/1940: The convoy arriving in British waters is met on 15 June by 6 destroyers, the aircraft carrier ARGUS and the battlecruiser HOOD. In the afternoon, one of AQUITANIA's lookouts reports a torpedo fired from a long distance, which just misses HMS HOOD's stern and slips between QUEEN MARY and AQUITANIA, then sinks at the end of its run. The warships of the convoy make a sharp turn and move away at full speed, but the destroyers regroup at one point and begin fierce bombardment with dept charges. The convoy runs into Greenock unharmed the next day.
31/08/1940: AQUITANIA, carrying 2,780 troops, joins to the convoy BN.5A formed by the EMPRESS of JAPAN, ORION and ORMONDE in the Great Australian Bight.
19/11.-24/11/1940: The German auxiliary cruiser KORMORAN, hunting the AQUITANIA in the Indian Ocean, is sunk by the Australian cruiser H.M.A.S. SYDNEY, which is so badly damaged in the action that she sinks as well. On her way from Singapore to Sydney five days later, the AQUITANIA rescues the 26 surviving members of the German ship's crew, no survivors are found from the SYDNEY.
28/12/1940: AQUITANIA leaves Sydney for Colombo with 3,350 men.
12/01/1941: Arrival in Colombo.
02/04/1941: The ocean liners AQUITANIA (3,345 people) and QUEEN MARY (5,718 people) carrying Australian troops join the US.9 convoy gathering in front of Sydney. MAURETANIA (II) (3,927) joins in Bass Strait. After reaching Fremantle, the QUEEN MARY leaves the convoy for Singapore.
04/28/1941: AQUITANIA, carrying units of the 14th Light Anti-Aircraft Division, departs from Singapore, via Colombo, for Port Tewfik, Sudan, where she arrives on May 13.
27/06/1941: AQUITANIA, carrying more units of the 28th Maori Battalion, a dental crew of 20 and 370 firemen, for a total of 4,020 men, leaves Wellington, New Zealand, calling at Sydney and Trincomalee for Port Tewfik, Sudan, arriving on 28 July. On June 30, QUEEN MARY (5,723 people) and QUEEN ELIZABETH (5,807 people) will join to the ship under the cover of the heavy cruiser H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA.
15/09/1941: AQUITANIA, carrying new units of the 28th Maori Battalion, a total of 3,296 men, leaves Wellington, New Zealand, calling via Melbourne, Freemantle and Colombo for Port Tewfik, Sudan, where it arrives on 20 October.
Table 7.: Troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in 1941.
04/03/1942: Following the entry of the United States into the war, the AQUITANIA makes two trips between Pearl Harbor and San Francisco.
19/04/1942: The retirement of John Charles Townley (born 12/06/1880), former Captain of the AQUITANIA with effect from 01/01/1943 is announced.
30/04/1942: AQUITANIA, carrying units of the 34th Infantry Division, leaves New York for Greenock, Scotland, along with 7 other ships.
11/12/1942: The AQUITANIA, carrying a total of 5,505 people, departs from Wellington, New Zealand, via Freemantle and Aden calling for Port Tewfik, Sudan, where it arrives on January 5, 1943.
Figs. 123.-125.: Magazine printed aboard the troopship AQUITANIA, for the Eighth Reinforcements of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. (New Zealand Expeditionary Forces) The ship departed from Wellington on 10th December 1942 and arrived at Port Tewfik, Egypt, on 5th January 1943. This copy of the magazine has its original owner's name at the top of the front cover: Trooper W.M. Francis (sources: here, here and here).
Table 8.: Troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in 1942.
01-02/1943: AQUITANIA takes part in the redeployment of Australian troops who fought in Africa and Southeast Asia to the defense of Australia, i the so-called Operation Pamphlet.
.../09/1943: In the line of the navigating bridge, a long-standing but non-contiguous crack is also identified on deck "C", which is probably related to the damage observed on deck "B" during 1924, 1925 and 1930. As part of the renovation the end walls of all boilers will be replaced.
30/11/1943: Physicist Niels Bohr and his son, Aege, who escaped from occupied Denmark (as Nicholas and James Baker) leave for the USA aboard the AQUITANIA departing from Gourock, where they arrive on December 6.
Table 9.: Troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in 1943.
29/01-05/02/1944: AQUITANIA transports 1,000 sailors and 7,000 soldiers from New York to Greenock, Scotland in preparation for the Normandy landings.
21-28/02/1944: AQUITANIA transports 12,000 troops from New York to Greenock, Scotland. On the way back to America, the ship will make a detour in Iceland to disembark 150 members of the 237th Signal Squadron.
15-22/06/1944: AQUITANIA transports soldiers of the 106th Infantry Division from New York to Gourock.
08/10/1944: During the inspection carried out for the maintenance of the ship, it is determined that the "interior surfaces of shell plating and bulkheads, where stripped for conversion to troop accommodation, is in an excellent state of preservation".
20-28/10/1944: AQUITANIA transports soldiers of the 422nd Infantry Division from New York to Greenock.
31/10.-11/08/1944: AQUITANIA carries replacement units from New York to Greenock.
15.-22/11/1944: AQUITANIA transports the command of the 15th Army and special formations (239 officers, 25 non-commissioned officers, 778 soldiers) from New York to Gourock.
Table 10.: Troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in 1944.
21-28/05/1945: After the European victory on May 9, the AQUITANIA sails from Gourock, Scotland to New York as part of the repatriation of the American and Canadian troops who fought in Europe and their wounded. There are 3,500 military men and 32 civilian women on board. The latter are guarded by an armed guard the entire way.
25/07-01/08/1945: Repatriation of American troops who served in Europe (soldiers of the 179th and 180th Divisions of the 7th Army, as well as the 99th and 130th Field Hospitals and the 828th Infirmary Center), a total of 7,866 people on board of the AQUITANIA, sails from Le Havre in France to New York.
Table 11.: Troop transport voyages of the AQUITANIA in 1945.
Figs. 126.-129.: The AQUITANIA as troop transporter in 1939 (above), in convoys (middle) in 1940 and 1942, and in 1944 (below) (sources: here, here, here and here).
The final years:
11/12/1945: The AQUITANIA, with a capacity of 3,236 people, repatriates 4,700 interned persons, prisoners of war and children (the latter evacuated from the British islands under bombardment during the Blitzkrieg to safer remote parts of the empire), from Sydney via Cape Town to Great Britain, where she arrives at the end of a 28-day voyage on January 7, 1946. A Christmas party is organized for the children on board on December 24, the evening before arrival in Cape Town, for which special invitation cards are printed in the ship's printing office. It takes a special effort by the staff to keep the soldiers away from the adolescent girls. Upon returning home, many children (especially the little ones) find it difficult to recognize their parents and return to their old lives, which had been forced to left behind, since by then they have already integrated into the new families offered by their fosterparents overseas.
Figs. 130.-131.: AQUITANIA enters Cape Town, 25th December of 1945. In the insert is the invitation card to the celebration on Christmas Eve for children, travells on board from Australia back to home, England. Although the hull and superstructures still wear the wartime gray paint, the funnels have already returned to the original Cunard-livery (sources: here and here).
04/01/1848: The AQUITANIA sailed a total of over 500,000 nautical miles and transported around 400,000 troops in World War II. At the end of the deployments, the ship is returned to Cunard, which then transports war brides and their children (family members of men fighting in Canadian units deployed in Europe) to Canada based on a contract with the Canadian government. During this last service, the AQUITANIA is held in high esteem in Halifax, the destination of such voyages.
15/04/1948: overhaul and maintenance after war service are completed. During the inspection of the ship, the following findings are made:
- The crack discovered in September 1943 on starboard shell-plating of deck "C" "has continued to extend" and "substantial repair" required, in a similar and typical way to the repair of the damage detected in 1933.
- On the other hand, the repair of the "B" deck supports, which were broken in December 1930, "remained in satisfactory condition".
- Stiffeners on "C"-deck’s number 2 hatch cover have to remove and replace.
- On the "A" deck, the deformed parapet plates of the promenade need to be repaired.
- Before the second expansion joint, 4 cracks are discovered, which are repaired by welding and plate doubling.
- On deck “B”, in front of the uptake of the third funnel, a local fracture of the deck plates is identified, which is also repaired by doubling.
- All side doors will be renewed and a slight leak detected in the fuel oil tanks will be calked "or injected as required".
20/05/1948: After the completion of her first major overhaul after the Second World War and the withdrawal from government service, the AQUITANIA backs out of the King George V. dry dock in Southampton, moors next to the western docks, where the crew re-installs the furnishing that was taken to warehouses during the war. The ship then also gets back its civilian colors. AQUITANIA will then go to sea through Southampton waters for a short trial run to see what speed she is capable of after her second boiler room is closed.
Figs. 132.-133.: The AQUITANIA returns to civilian life - preparations in the dry dock "King George V." in Southampton (above) and the sea trials (below). Sources: here and here.
Table 12.: During her exceptionally long active career between 1914-1950, the AQUITANIA was forced several times to be transformed in order to adapt to the changed needs. Moreover, the ship is one of only about 30 ocean liners that served in both world wars. The changing needs of military use (auxiliary cruiser, troop transport, hospital ship) meant from the outset extraordinary use that was different from the usual, but the restoration of civilian use after military service could not be imagined without the continuous development of passenger comfort services. This certainly resulted in a series of smaller or larger reconstructions of the ship. The table above provides an overview of these.
01/01/1949: The contract for the repatriation of wives and children of Canadian soldiers deployed in Europe is extended for another year.
.../05/1949: The annual inspection identified only a few loose rivets, which will be replaced, and it is determined that the bilge keels need to be repaired by welding. All of the previous year's repairs are in "good condition". The navigation certificate and the passenger transport license of the liner will be extended until the end of the year. Rumors about the steel of funnels, bulkheads, and decks becoming so thin that the ship is permeable like a sieve in wet weather, or that a piano crashed through the deck during a business dinner, are without any foundation.
11/24/1949: The AQUITANIA makes her last arrival in Halifax, where Henry Bruce Jefferson of the local information service takes an extensive series of photographs of her. The closing of the ship's second boiler room silenced the mechanical steam whistle on the second funnel, hence electric fog horns attached to the foremast, just below the crows nest.
14/12/1949: End of her career: at the start of the scheduled service of the QUEEN MARY and QUEEN ELIZABETH, the continued operation of the ship is deemed uneconomic, so she is taken out of service.
09/01/1950: Hampton & Sons Ltd. auctions the ship's furniture and other fittings.
13/02/1950: Sale of the ship (buyer: the British Iron and Steel Co.). Cunard Line makes few stipulations: they only insist on the return of the ship's steering wheel, the largest ship's bell and the teak used in the interior, everything else that is still on board when the AQUITANIA arrives at the scrap yard is the property of the scrapping company. The wheel of the ship was eventually placed in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, where it remains on display today.
18/02/1950: Formal decommissioning of AQUITANIA, lowering of the company flag. The chairman of Cunard, Frederic Alan Bates (brother of Sir Percy Bates, head of the company between 1946-1953) asks Captain Richard Bernard Gilbert Woollat, the commander who accompanied the ship on her last voyage, to read the following message for her during the decommissioning : “I cannot leave today without expressing my sadness at the final separation from Aquitania. Through peace and war, fair weather and foul, she has done her duty as unsurpassed by her other sisters who have helped to build up the long history of the company. It can honestly be said that she performed well until the end.”
Figs. 134.-135.: Termination of official relationship with Cunard: Emptying the ship and lowering of the flags (source: here and here).
Left: Removal of furniture and equipment from AQUITANIA on 8 January 1950. The vans delivered the furniture and equipment to Pier 108, where it was then sold at an auction starting the following month. The crew was also tasked with removing door locks and wall-mounted stops throughout the whole ship. However, the doors themselves remained on their hinges, so reporters on the last voyage to Faslane with the ship noted that all the doors swung open and closed again and again during the entire trip, as they could not be secured.
Right: Since the Cunard Line and the White Star Line merged in 1934 due to the financial difficulties of the latter (the ships operating on the Atlantic routes of the White Star Company became the property of the Cunard-White Star Line, a joint company with Cunard), the two companies that had been rivals until then, started to use their symbols - the rectangular red flag of the Cunard, decorated with golden lion holding a globe in its paws and the swallow-tailed red flag decorated with the silver star of the White Star - simultaneously on the ships of the joint venture.
19/02/1950: AQUITANIA left Southampton for the last time to be scrapped, after nearly 36 years in service. The thick fog in the morning delays the departure of the ship by three hours or so, but when it finally sets off at noon, the thousands standing on the piers wave goodbye. She responds to the flag signals hoisted on the ship's foremast as a farewell, responded by the shore station with the following flag signals: "We say goodbye with sadness!"
21/02/1950: The AQUITANIA approaches the scrap-yard at Faslane, Scotland. Just off the Rhu Narrows to Gareloch - near Rosneath - however, she have to wait until the tide comes in and there is enough water under the ship's keel to be able to complete the last 5 miles of her final journey. At the news of the arrival of the big ship, the children from the public schools in Rosneath are let out early that day, and they gather on the shores of the Gareloch to witness the passage of the AQUITANIA. The 36-year-old ship will reach her final port of call in Faslane at around 16:00 that afternoon.
.../10/1951: A fire breaks out in the ship while it is being dismantled.
.../11/1951: Completion of demolition.
Her significance: R.M.S. AQUITANIA is the longest-serving Cunard ship was in service during 36 years between 1914-1950, making 443 transatlantic crossings. She is the only giant passenger steamer that fought in both world wars, and the last four-funnelled ocean liner in operation. During its 36 years of service, it sailed 3 million miles and carried 1.2 million passengers on 450 voyage.
Figs. 136.-137.: Departure for the last voyage from Southampton and the end of the journey in Faslane (sources: here and here).
Left: coverage of AQUITANIA's last voyage from The Illustrated London News. magazine on February 25, 1950.
Right: after the funnels and masts have been removed, and the superstructures have been dismantled, the hull is being cut by flame cutters. It is clear from the image that the last 'A' letter of the ship's name was cut out separately (probably as a souvenir).
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Sources:
Books and archival sources:
Monographs:
Chirnside, Mark: RMS Aquitania: The Ship Beautiful. The History Press, 2008.
Diggle, E. G.: The Romance of a Modern Liner, 1930.
Hawthorne, Daniel: Ships of the Seven Seas, Garden City: Doubleday, Page & company, 1925.
Hurd, Archibald: A Merchant Fleet at War, Cassell and Company, Ltd. London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne, 1920
Layton, K.; Fitch, T.: The Unseen Aquitania, the ship in rare illustrations. Stroud, 2016.
Peskett, Leonard: The design of steamships from the owner’s point of view, in.: "The Shipbuilder" Vol. X., January-June, 1914. Newcastle-on-Tyne, The Shipbuilder Press, 1914. pp. 272-284.
Warren, Mark D.: Aquitania – The Quadruple-Screw Turbine-Driven Cunard Liner. Patrick Stephens, 1988.
Author Unknown: The Aquitania – latest addition to Anglo-American Fleet, in.: Scientific American Magazine, Vol LXXV. No. 1947., April 26., 1913. pp. 458., 264-265.
Author Unknown:New Cunarder Aquitania – Another Ocean Liner over 900 Feet long reaches the Port of New York, in.: Scientific American Magazine, Vol CX. No. 23., June 6., 1914. pp. 458., 461-462.
Author Unknown: The Aquiatnia as an Oil Burner – The Advantages in Economy and Operation of Oil over usual Fireing, in.: Scientific American Magazine, Vol CXXIII. No. 7., Au-gust 14., 1920. pp. 150., 166.
Author Unknown: The Cunard quadruple- screw Atlantic liner, "Aquitania" – Souvenir number of "The Shipbuilder". Newcastle-on-Tyne, England: The Shipbuilder Press, 1914.
Author Unknown: United States Army in the World War 1917-1919 – Policy-forming Documents of the American Expeditionary Forces, Vol. 2, Center of Military History, United Sta-tes Army, Washington. D.C., 1989.
Structural and other Plans:
Aquitania fonds of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Aquitania structural plans at Archive.org, the Internet Archive
Sources from the Internet:
Story of the AQUITANIA (text and pictures):
https://edwardianliners.weebly.com/twentieth-century-travel.html
https://edwardianliners.weebly.com/construction-of-the-aquitanias-hull.html
https://edwardianliners.weebly.com/aquitanias-ventilation-system.html
https://thegreatoceanliners.com/articles/aquitania/
https://www.greatoceanliners.com/rms-aquitania
https://gracesguide.co.uk/RMS_Aquitania
https://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=aquit
https://www.rmslusitania.info/related-ships/aquitania/reprieve-and-glory/
https://www.northpalmbeachlife.com/cunards-aquitania.html
https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7bg7371619_79#page/1/mode/1up
https://www.lindahervieux.com/the-320th-blog/2015/9/10/the-aquitania
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=Aquitania&_ser=BT%20100&id=C3141
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Aquitania
Interior and machinery of the AQUITANIA (text and pictures):
http://ssmaritime.com/Aquitania.htm?ref=anart4life.com
https://www.britisharmedforces.org/pages/nat_troopships.htm
https://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/editors-corner/cunards-rms-aquitania-origins-ww1
https://huntington.org/verso/stories-aboard-aquitania
https://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com/2010/12/ship-beautiful-cunards-last-four.html
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/BL28780/018
https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/friday-gem-from-the-stoddard-templeton-design-archive-cunard-white-star-liners/
Story of the Liverpool dock-system (Gladstone-dock, etc.):
https://www.benjidog.co.uk/Geoff%20Topp%20Postcards/northdocks.php
Starting AQUITANIA from cold:
https://earlofcruise.blogspot.com/2016/09/starting-rms-aquitania-from-cold.html
https://www.academia.edu/33502096/RMS_Aquitania_1913_Rev_1
Wartime service, 1914-1918 (text and pictures):
https://www.naval-history.net/WW1Book-RN1a.htm
https://birtwistlewiki.com.au/wiki/HMHS_Aquitania
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/176424-hms-aquitania/
https://archives.novascotia.ca/photocollection/archives/?ID=2085
https://2nd4thmgb.com.au/story/24th-machine-gunners-on-java-awol-blackforce/
https://books.google.hu/books?id=5iQ00r2733YC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=captain+W.+C.+Battle+of+AQUITANIA&source=bl&ots=9cAnboYzQx&sig=ACfU3U1iXJmommTUN2nPU4iZ7Rwzyflh0A&hl=hu&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUpZ_V6t-FAxUZh_0HHZdJCgc4ChDoAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=captain%20W.%20C.%20Battle%20of%20AQUITANIA&f=false
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1916-06-29/debates/8d02dc1e-56ee-44af-996a-65f34416662d/Supply%E2%80%94EighthAllottedDay
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/threads/ss-aquitania.29475/page-2
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/publications/documentary-histories/wwi/march-1918/office-of-the-chief-2.html
https://centerformaritimestrategy.org/publications/the-rms-aquitania-and-the-enduring-importance-of-military-sealift-capabilities/
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/threads/ss-aquitania.29475/page-2
The Quintinshill railroad accident:
https://www.theroyalscots.co.uk/quintinshill-train-crash/
https://www.lifeandwork.org/features/features/view/146-the-quintinshill-firestorm
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/first-world-war/quintinshill-disaster
The USS SHAW incident:
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1926/november/shaw-aquitania-collision
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1918/december/international-notes-naval-war-notes
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/us-navy-world-war-i-redirect.html
Refitting and conversion in 1919:
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/51621/
The Sperry-gyroscope:
https://www.sperrymarine.com/corporate-history/sperry-marine
Menue cards from the 1920’s:
https://nypl.getarchive.net/media/rms-aquitania-3e66c7
The Prohibition:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/262/100/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1065814
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2187900
https://www.nytimes.com/1923/06/11/archives/first-two-ships-in-obey-new-dry-rule-english-liners-arrive-with.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/24/opinion/IHT-1923liquor-seized-in-our-pages100-75-and-50-years-ago.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1923/05/03/archives/enforcement-begins-june-10-mellon-prepares-regulations-to-bar-all.html
https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/id/4645/
https://www.dramdevotees.com/liquor-laws-listed-from-1676-1935/
The grounding in 1935:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbqAqpK5AfA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt0dK9NfQQA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhsHf2JoljQ
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/media/aquitania-aground.164828/
The cruise to the Virgin-islands in 1938:
https://valeriesims.com/blog/rms-aquitanias-christmas-cruise-to-the-us-virgin-islands-1938
Wartime service, 1939-1945 (text and pictures):
https://centerformaritimestrategy.org/publications/the-rms-aquitania-and-the-enduring-importance-of-military-sealift-capabilities/
http://ww2troopships.com/crossings.htm
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136714643/view
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/articles/a-second-world-war-evacuee-return-journey-home-on-rms-aquitania/
Famous captains of the AQUITANIA:
https://navyleague.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The-Navy-Vol_12_Part2-1950-Apr-May-1950.pdf
https://www.mediastorehouse.com.au/topfoto/1920s/ocean/captain-w-r-d-irvine-commander-berengaria-23-11027177.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1926/08/05/archives/berengarias-master-captain-irvine-resigns-illhealth-makes-war-hero.html
https://search.lma.gov.uk/captains-registers-pdfs/captains-registers-i.pdf
https://www.noonans.co.uk/media/auction_catalogues/Medals%20Strong%2018%20May%2011.pdf
Others:
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-yzgoj/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1384291/4682216/DPI1957695__83518.1542036056.jpg?c=2
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/search/606280/?q=Aquitania&t=xfmg_media&o=relevance
Fig. 16. and 17: Above: The moment of the flight across over the ship and the release of the cable (source: 
Fig. 18. and 19.: Above: Shots of the mail delivery (source: 
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