Megantic (ship)
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The Megantic was a 1908 transatlantic liner of the British shipping company White Star Line , which was used in passenger and freight traffic mainly between Great Britain and Canada. The ship was decommissioned in 1931 and scrapped in 1933.
The ship
The dimensions of the steamship Megantic were 14,878 gross registered tonnes (GRT), 11,923 tonnes below deck and 9,183 net registered tonnes (NRT). The load capacity was 8,790 tons and the displacement was 20,800 tons. The steamer was 167.8 meters long, 20.5 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 8.38 meters. The eight-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines developed 1180 nominal horsepower and allowed an average cruising speed of 16.5 knots. The ship was equipped with a double propeller, a chimney, two masts and three decks. The Megantic had electric lights , cooling systems, and wireless radio . On board there was space for 230 passengers in the first, 430 in the second and 1,000 in the third class.
The machine equipment of the Megantic and its sister ship was considered an example for the testing of the future mechanical equipment of the new White Star flagships of the Olympic class . The aim was to determine whether the conventional method of the double screw and quadruple expansion steam engine from the Megantic could compete against the newer variant of the triple propeller and a combination of piston engine and steam engine from Laurentic . Since the Laurentic proved to be much more economical, White Star decided to build their new ships according to their model.
In 1907 the British shipping company Dominion Line , which belonged to JP Morgan's international shipping group International Mercantile Marine Company , commissioned the Northern Irish shipyard Harland & Wolff to build two sister ships , which were to be named Albany and Alberta . During construction, both ships were taken over by the White Star Line, which renamed the Albany in Megantic (after Lac Mégantic in Québec ) and the Alberta in Laurentic (after the St. Lawrence River ).
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The Megantic was launched on December 10, 1908. On June 3, 1909, she was handed over to her owners and ran on June 17, 1909 on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Montreal . The ship was used on this route until the outbreak of the First World War. The Megantic and the Laurentic were the largest ships in the White Star fleet on the Canada route. In August 1910 the American doctor Hawley Crippen, suspected of the murder of his wife , was transferred from Canada to England with his lover Ethel Le Néve on board the Megantic , where he was found guilty of the crime and executed in November 1910.
In the first World War
After the outbreak of World War I, the Megantic was placed in the service of the British Admiralty and used as a troop transport . On October 3, 1914, she ran in Gaspé (Canada) as part of a 32-ship convoy to Plymouth , whose escort included the warships Eclipse , Diana , Charybdis , Glory and Talbot . After ten days at sea, the convoy broke up and headed for various destination ports. The Megantic ran together with the Bermudian , the Royal Edward and the Franconia as the White Squadron ("White Squadron") Plymouth. She anchored off Devonport on October 14, 1914 .
From November 30, 1914, the Megantic was set on the route Liverpool - New York until it served as a troop transport from April 1915 and transported 1,800 soldiers. On April 24, 1917, an attack by the German submarine U 43 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth Jürst on the ship failed. In the same month the ship was given the Liner Requisition Theme.
After the war
A few weeks after the end of the war, the Megantic was returned to the White Star Line and set off on December 11, 1918 on her first post-war voyage from Liverpool to New York. In 1919 it was overhauled by Harland & Wolff and then put back on the Canada route. Out of season, the Megantic was now also used for cruises from New York to the West Indies . In January 1920 the ship made a trip to Sydney (Australia) to Wellington (New Zealand) for Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company . In 1924, the passenger accommodations were rearranged so that from then on 452 passengers in first class, 260 in second class and 550 passengers in third class could travel. In 1927 the ship was used to transport troops to Shanghai and in 1928 it made a trip to China .
From March 22, 1928, the Megantic drove on the route London - Le Havre - Halifax - New York. In the summer months, when the St. Lawrence River was open to shipping, she headed for Quebec and Montreal. From 1930 to 1931 she was used together with the Adriatic , Laurentic and Calgaric for economy class cruises. In May 1931 it returned again for a short time on the Liverpool – Québec – Montreal route until it was scrapped in July 1931 and transferred to Osaka (Japan) for demolition in February 1933 .
Web links / sources
- Detailed and illustrated description of the history of the Megantic
- Brief summary of the general data and collection of contemporary postcards
- A trip on the Megantic with Frederick Philip Grove in 1909 ( memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- Further previously unmentioned key data of the Megantic on norwayheritage.com
- Another detailed account of the ship's service life