Martha Washington (ship)
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The Martha Washington was a transatlantic ocean liner named after Martha Washington , the wife of US President George Washington , owned by the Austrian shipping company Austro-Americana in Trieste , which entered service in 1908. At the outbreak of the First World War the ship was in Hoboken , New Jersey , launched and seized in early 1917 after the war entrance of the USA in order to use it as a troop transport. In 1922 came after the now Italian back Trieste, where it was scrapped after further Passagierdienst 1934th
history
Commissioning and passenger journeys until 1914
The steel-built steamship Martha Washington was launched at the Scottish shipyard Russel & Co. in Port Glasgow (Kingston Yard) on December 7, 1907. It was 140.21 m long and 17.07 m wide and had a volume of 8145 gross register tonnes (GRT). The first ship of the Austro-Americana shipping company equipped with two funnels had two triple expansion steam engines made by Rankin & Blackmore from Greenock with an output of 6500 hp , which gave the ship a maximum speed of 17.2 knots. The Martha Washington had 70 passengers in first, 130 in second and 1230 in third class. Until the commissioning of the Emperor Franz Joseph I in February 1912, it was the largest ship of the shipping company and intended for passenger service between Trieste and New York City , with the strong growth in the emigrant business with the capacities of the III. Class should be served.
The equipment of the ship corresponded to the highest technical standard of the time. A thermotank system - with this, warm air is forced into the cabins, so that radiators in the cabins could be dispensed with - the arrangement of the cabins in the 1st and 2nd class exclusively as outside cabins and the absence of bunk beds in the 1st class. Greatest possible comfort was achieved. The passengers entered the lounge and music room via a spacious entrance hall in the upscale Louis-seize style. The two higher classes each had their own dining room, while the first class was connected to the music salon and library above it by a light shaft. Other common rooms including a smoking room - otherwise smoking was prohibited on the ship - and a winter garden on the promenade deck ensured a pleasant passage on the ship. Finally, a radio room (“ Marconi station”) was set up for wireless communication with the mainland and other ships .
The Martha Washington was taken over on April 17, 1908 in Glasgow by a crew of the Austro-Americana under Captain Carlo Gerolimich (until November 8, 1910) and brought to New York. From there she started her maiden voyage on April 29, 1908 via Naples to the home port of Trieste, where she moored on May 9, 1908. The first full voyage on the destination route Trieste-Patras-Palermo-New York and back started on May 23, 1908. Later, Ettore Zar, Callisto Cosulich's brother-in-law, commanded the ship for many years until his retirement in 1922, according to the relevant passenger lists .
After the United States entered World War I , Martha Washington, lying in Hoboken, New Jersey , was requisitioned on April 6, 1917 by the quartermaster of the US Army . In November 1917 she moved to the US Navy , from which she was used as a troop transport between the USA and Western Europe after a two-month overhaul for war purposes. On her first voyage, which started on February 10 and ended again in New York on March 14, 1918, she brought troops to France together with other ships such as the Von Steuben , President Lincoln or Antigone . Her last trip took Martha Washington to the Black Sea, from where she brought Armenian and Polish refugees to Constantinople. On October 15, 1919 she started her journey home via Malta, Marseille and Brest. It arrived in New York on November 11, 1919 and was handed over to the War Department on November 18, 1919 after being decommissioned. A total of 24,005 military and civilian passengers were shipped with her on eight trips.
Service in post-war Italy
In November 1922, the steamer was sold again to the former owner, who now operated as Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione (Cosulich Line) and continued to reside in Trieste, which has since become Italian . In 1932 the Italia Società di Navigazione (Italian Line) acquired the ship and renamed it Tel Aviv . After a fire in a shipyard in Trieste, the ship had to be scrapped in early 1934 after 26 years of service.
Promotional materials, timetables, models
In order to advertise the trips of the Martha Washington , posters, timetables for the scheduled service and so-called pleasure and recreational trips as well as passenger lists, some with information on the technical parameters of the ship and deck plans, were used in several languages. Postcards with images of the ship were also sold by various publishers. a. from the New York company Phelps Brothers & Co., the general agent of Austro-Americana in the USA, or the Kohn brothers in Vienna, where a series of artist postcards with the shipping company logo designed by the Viennese painter Karl Holiday , the appeared with at least German and Italian language labeling; However, there are also cards without any reference to the motif on the picture.
A scale model of the ship is in the collection of the Associazione Marinara Aldebaran in Trieste.
literature
- Gregor Gatscher-Riedl: Red-White-Red across the Atlantic. The history of the Austro-Americana. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2019, ISBN 978-3-99024-824-9
- Franz Freiherr von Tunkl: Shipping and maritime affairs. Presentation of the entire practical and sporting maritime facilities and conditions of the present . Hartleben, Vienna and Leipzig 1913
- Paolo Valenti: Emperor Franz Josef I. Il più grande piroscafo passeggeri della marina austroungarica. Luglio Editore, Trieste 2010 ISBN 978-88-96940-35-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ This captain, who comes from Lussinpiccolo , managed the ship until November 8, 1910, according to a copy of his seafaring book. Also on the list of first class passengers (New York - Trieste) of July 13, 1910 ( List of First Class Saloon Passangers of the "SS Martha Washington" ) it is known as "Cap. C. Gerolimich ”. From April 20, 1912 to July 22, 1914 he also commanded the flagship of the Austro-Americana, the Emperor Franz Joseph I , after he had previously been in command of her ships Francesca and Argentina . Gerolimich is the author of a comprehensive manual for captains and shipowners ( Manuale pratico del capitano ed armatore ) published in 1915 by the Libreria Editrice Ettore Vram in Trieste .
- ^ Compare also the Wiener Mondags-Journal of May 13, 1912, p. 9 ( ANNO online ).
- ^ Gregor Gatscher-Riedl: Red-white-red across the Atlantic - The history of the Austro-Americana . Berndorf 2019, pp. 110–127, 226–228
- ↑ There were materials in German, English, Greek, Italian and Spanish according to the routes and the origin of the passengers.
- ^ Gregor Gatscher-Riedl: Red-white-red across the Atlantic - The history of the Austro-Americana . Berndorf 2019, p. 117