Duchess class
.jpg) The Duchess of Atholl
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The Duchess class was a series of four passenger ships owned by the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company . The first unit of the class was the Duchess of Bedford in June 1928 . It was followed by the Duchess of Atholl , Duchess of Richmond and finally in March 1929 the Duchess of York . The ships designed for the transatlantic service were mainly used in the liner service from Liverpool to Canada , but occasionally also used for cruises . The four sister ships were also known under the nickname The Drunken Duchesses (German: The drunken duchesses ) because of their strong rolling in heavy seas .
During World War II , all four ships served as troop transports for the Royal Navy , with the Duchess of Atholl and the Duchess of York sunk during combat operations. The remaining units Duchess of Bedford and Duchess of Richmond were modernized after the war and renamed the Empress of France and Empress of Canada . While the Empress of Canada was destroyed by fire in 1953, the Empress of France was the last ship of the class to remain in service until 1960.
Planning and construction
The Canadian Pacific Navigation Company had not put a new ship into service since the Empress of Canada in 1922 and therefore ordered a series of four ships for the transatlantic service from Liverpool to Canada. With the exception of the Empress of Canada , these ships should be the largest ever commissioned by the Canadian Pacific. The four ships were named after British duchesses. The Duchess of York was originally supposed to bear the name Duchess of Cornwall and was keeled under this name. However, since all other ships in the class were named in honor of the still living duchesses and the last Duchess of Cornwall, Alexandra of Denmark, died in 1925, the shipping company opted for Duchess of York . The units of the Duchess class bore the names of the following duchesses, some of whom were present at the launch:
- Duchess of Bedford : Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford
- Duchess of Atholl : Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl (was also godmother of the ship)
- Duchess of Richmond : Hilda Gordon-Lennox, Duchess of Richmond
- Duchess of York : Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York (was also godmother of the ship)
The new class of ship could carry 580 passengers in cabin class, 480 in tourist class and 510 in third class. The crew of the four ships consisted of 510 people. The units of the Duchess class were designed for a service speed of 17.5 knots, their official maximum speed was 18 knots. However, the Duchess of Bedford is said to have reached up to 20 knots on some trips. The ships were driven by six steam turbines that ran on twin screws and generated an output of up to 14,700 kW (20,000 hp).
The contract to build three of the four Duchess ships was awarded to John Brown & Company in Clydebank . Only the Duchess of Atholl was built in the shipyard of William Beardmore and Company in Dalmuir . Originally the Duchess of Atholl was supposed to be the first ship of the class to be delivered, but the commissioning was delayed due to a turbine failure. As the lead ship of the Duchess class, the Duchess of Bedford passed into the possession of the Canadian Pacific in May 1928 . For this purpose, the construction work on the ship, which had only been launched a few months earlier, was accelerated in order to meet the planned date of the maiden voyage of the Duchess of Atholl , which had already been widely announced. On June 1, 1928, she took up the liner service from Liverpool to Canada. It was followed by the Duchess of Atholl in July 1928, the Duchess of Richmond in January 1929, and lastly the Duchess of York in March 1929. Like all ships of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company, the Duchess -class units were registered under the British instead of the Canadian flag .
period of service
Prewar years
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The Duchess class proved very successful on the transatlantic route to Canada. The ships called at different ports. While the Duchess of Bedford , Duchess of Atholl and the Duchess of Richmond were used for the service to Québec and Montreal , the Duchess of York ran at Saint John in New Brunswick until the outbreak of the war .
The Duchess of Bedford set a new speed record in a westerly direction on her second voyage, which took her six days and nine and a half hours. In 1930, the Duchess of York also set a speed record on the route to Saint John . However, the four ships tended to roll in heavy seas. They were therefore given the nickname Drunken Duchesses . In addition to the liner service, the ships of the Duchess class were also used for occasional cruises. The maiden voyage of the Duchess of Richmond in January 1929 was a round trip from Gibraltar to the Mediterranean . Trips to various European ports and Bermuda were also offered .
With the year 1930 and the economic crisis, the number of passengers on the initially very successful sister ships fell rapidly for a short time. For this reason, the Duchess -class units were mainly used for cruises during this time and were even temporarily idle in the port of Liverpool.
In the pre-war years, Duchess- class ships were involved in several minor accidents. The Duchess of Bedford collided with an iceberg on July 13, 1933 off Newfoundland , but remained undamaged. The area in which the four units were deployed changed little before the start of the war. In the 1930s, the Duchess ships called at Liverpool and the port of Southampton . Because of their comfort, the four sisters were considered glamorous and popular with the shipping company's celebrity passengers, alongside the much larger Empress of Britain , which was commissioned in 1931 . Well-known guests on board the ships included the banker Montagu Norman and Robert Baden-Powell , who was on the Duchess of Richmond's maiden voyage .
Second World War
After the outbreak of World War II, all four ships of the Duchess class were confiscated by the Royal Navy and converted into troop carriers. Here the sister ships were involved in some important war operations. So carried the Duchess of Bedford as part of Operation Torch to Gibraltar. The Duchess of Atholl evacuated more than 800 British children to Canada in May 1940 and took part in Operation Ironclad exactly two years later . The Duchess of York was part of one of the WS convoys and the Duchess of Richmond carried troops to North Africa.
On October 10, 1942, the Duchess of Atholl was sunk during a crossing from Cape Town to Great Britain off the island of Ascension by a torpedo of the German submarine U 178 , which hit the port side in the ship's engine room. During her sinking, the Duchess of Atholl was hit two more times by the U 178 before she sank completely. Four crew members were killed here.
On July 11, 1943, the Duchess of York in a convoy off Vigo was attacked by Focke-Wulf Fw 200 aircraft and evacuated after it went up in flames after being hit by bombs. The burning wreck was sunk by the destroyer Douglas the following day to avoid attracting submarines. In total, more than 100 people died in the attack on the convoy.
post war period
The remaining units Duchess of Bedford and Duchess of Richmond were used up after the war effort and were considered obsolete. They have therefore been extensively modernized and painted in the new colors of the Canadian Pacific. The division of passengers also changed. After the modernization, the two ships were given the new names Empress of France and Empress of Canada . The Empress of Canada resumed regular service in July 1947, the Empress of France only over a year later in September 1948.
On January 25, 1953, the Empress of Canada was destroyed by a fire at its dock in Liverpool and then overturned due to the extinguishing water pumped inside. The ship, written off as a total loss, could only be recovered at great expense after a year and then towed to La Spezia , Italy, for scrapping . The Empress of France stayed in service for another six years before completing its last crossing in December 1960 after 32 years of service and then going to Newport , Welsh, to be scrapped .
Furnishing
The ships of the Duchess class were comfortably equipped. Each cabin category had its own dining room, lounge, reading and writing room and smoking room. Some of the common areas were shared between classes. This included the gymnastics room.
literature
- Peter Pigott: Sailing Seven Seas: A History of the Canadian Pacific Line . Dundurn, 2010, ISBN 1459713257
- William H. Miller: Post-War Canadian Pacific Liners: Empresses of the Atlantic . Amberley Publishing Limited, 2013, ISBN 1445621428
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jeff Newman: Duchess of York. In: greatships.net. Retrieved May 5, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c THE CANADIAN PACIFIC LINER 'EMPRESS OF FRANCE' (f 'DUCHESS OF BEDFORD') of 1928. In: liverpoolships.org. Retrieved May 3, 2018 .
- ^ A b William H. Miller: Post-War Canadian Pacific Liners: Empresses of the Atlantic . Amberley Publishing Limited, 2013, ISBN 1445621428 , page 7.
- ^ Peter Pigott: Sailing Seven Seas: A History of the Canadian Pacific Line . Dundurn, 2010, ISBN 1459713257 , page 106.