RMS Umbria
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The RMS Umbria was an ocean liner put into service in 1884 by the British shipping company Cunard Line , which was used for passenger and freight traffic on the Liverpool - Queenstown - New York route. She was a bearer of the Blue Ribbon and one of the largest ships of her time. The Umbria was decommissioned in 1910 after 145 Atlantic crossings and sold for demolition.
The ship
In 1883, the Cunard Line ordered two new identical sister ships from the John Elder & Company shipyard in Govan near Glasgow , which are used in passenger traffic on the North Atlantic route and are also competitive in the struggle for the Blue Ribbon, the coveted award for the fastest Atlantic crossing by a passenger steamer should. The construction was financed by the two older Cunard ships Parthia and Batavia (both from 1870) were traded in with John Elder & Company.
The first of these two ships to be completed was the Umbria , which was followed by the Etruria in March 1885 . Both ships were 158.2 meters long, 17.43 meters wide and had a volume of 7,718 GRT. This made them the largest ships of the Cunard Line up to that point and one of the largest ships in the world. They were the last Cunard ships to be equipped with sails and also the last two to be propelled by a single propeller and compound steam engines.
The two relatively wide chimneys were noticeable in the exterior design. The ship also had three fully rigged steel masts . An innovation at Umbria was cooling devices for the transport of perishable food. The Umbria was powered by compound steam engines and nine double-ended boilers , which consumed a total of 320 tons of coal per day and allowed a speed of 19 knots (33.3 km / h). The hull was divided into ten watertight compartments.
The furnishing of the cabins and salons represented the epitome of the Victorian era . The first class lounges were furnished with carved and decorated furniture and heavy velvet curtains and in the bric-à-brac design, which was very popular at the time . The first-class rooms, including the dining room, smoking room and music room, were on the promenade, upper, saloon and main deck. The second class was comfortable and spacious for the standard of the time and stood out from many competitors. Initially, 550 first class and 800 second class passengers could be taken on board. Later, the space was designed for 500 passengers in the first, 160 in the second and 800 in the third class.
Both ships made a name for themselves due to their size, speed and luxurious equipment and were long among the highlights of the North Atlantic passenger traffic.
history
Record breaker
The Umbria was launched on June 25, 1884 at John Elder & Company with great media interest. Godmother was a Mrs. Hope from Edinburgh . At the beginning of October 1884 the test drives were completed and on November 1, 1884 the Umbria ran from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York. The command was held by Theodore Cook, the longest-serving captain of the Cunard fleet, who had already been in service in the days of sailing.
On March 26, 1885, the Umbria and the recently completed Etruria were drafted by the British Admiralty to use them as an auxiliary cruiser due to a political crisis between Russia and Afghanistan . However, the conflict resolved shortly afterwards and the Etruria was able to resume its passenger traffic. The Umbria was withheld for a further six months as a precaution before it was returned to Cunard in September 1885. Since the ship had been equipped with 130 mm cannons, it was kept in mind as a supplement for the Royal Navy if necessary .
In 1887, the Umbria took the prestigious Blue Ribbon from its sister ship when she passed Sandy Hook on April 4th after a journey of six days, four hours and 12 minutes. She had covered the distance of 5274 km from Queenstown at an average cruising speed of 19.22 knots (35.59 km / h) and thus completed the fastest Atlantic crossing of a steamer to date. In 1888, however, it was defeated again by the Etruria .
Accidents and special occurrences
On November 10, 1888, shortly after leaving New York at Sandy Hook, the Umbria collided with the freight steamer Iberia of the French Fabre Line . The sharp bow of the Umbria completely separated the stern of the Iberia , which then sank. The responsibility for the accident was given to Umbria and her high speed, which was classified as dangerous.
On April 17, 1890, the Umbria , which had left New York five days earlier with 655 passengers on board, rescued the crew of the Norwegian barque Magdalena , which had rammed an iceberg and was full of water. Captain Gunderson and his eight-person crew set the Magdalena on fire to sink her and were taken to Liverpool on board the Umbria .
Two years later, the Umbria caused an uproar when she seemed lost on the high seas. On December 17, 1892, under the command of Captain Horatio McKay, she left Liverpool with 400 passengers and a large amount of mail, made the obligatory stopover in Queenstown and steamed into the open Atlantic. Her arrival in New York was scheduled for December 24th. When she had still not arrived by December 28th and there was no trace of her, worries and speculations about her whereabouts grew. There was no news until December 29th, when the captain of the steamer Galileo testified that he had seen the Umbria on Christmas Eve . According to his statement, the ship appeared to be unable to drive and showed three red position lights , which indicated that it could no longer be steered, but that it also did not need any outside help. The weather was bad and there had been violent storm winds from the northwest. The Umbria was also sighted by other ships, such as the Gallia of the Cunard Line on December 26th or the Manhanset on December 30th, which announced that repairs were being made to the broken shaft on board the Umbria .
The reason for the long delay of the Umbria was that on the afternoon of December 23rd the shaft bearing was broken. The engines were stopped immediately so that the steamer drifted rudderlessly in the high waves. Chief Machinist Tomlinson and his men worked non-stop on the repair. On the evening of December 23, the steamship Bohemia offered to tow the Umbria and tow it to New York. However, the rope broke around 10 p.m. in the heavy storm. The next morning the Bohemia was gone. On December 27, the repair work was so far completed that the Umbria could resume her voyage to New York. She arrived there, to the relief of all and in front of thousands of onlookers, on December 31st at 11 p.m., one week late. After further repairs, it ran back to Liverpool on February 4, 1893 and resumed its regular service on April 1.
On June 28, 1896, the Umbria ran an hour after departure from its pier at the foot of Clarkson Street in New York shortly before the curve in the Gedney Channel, about three kilometers before Sandy Hook on the wreck of the barque Andrew Jackson . The coal-laden sailor had sunk the month before after the collision with the British steamer Vedra . The ship was stuck until it could be freed with the help of seven tugs at the next high tide . On board the Umbria , the rowing crew from Yale University was on their way to the Henley Royal Regatta . After divers could not find any damage to the hull, the Umbria continued her journey.
Use in the Boer War
After the outbreak of the Second Boer War in South Africa on October 12, 1899, the Umbria was designated by the British government on December 22, 1899 to bring troops and weapons to South Africa. On January 11, 1900, she left for her first voyage. Militias from Warwickshire , Derbyshire and Durham were on board . The Umbria docked in Cape Town on January 29th . On the way back to Southampton , she brought home wounded soldiers.
In April 1900, the ship arrived again in Cape Town. After the liberation of the city of Mafikeng from the Boers , the Umbria was anchored in Port Natal (now Durban ) during the festivities . On June 7, 1900 she cast off for the last time in Cape Town and arrived on June 26 with 600 wounded on board in Southampton. Cunard had the ship overhauled and on July 21 it was back on the liner service to New York. In 1901 the Umbria and the Etruria were equipped with wireless telecommunication devices invented by Guglielmo Marconi .
Attempted bomb attack
On May 9, 1903, the Umbria hit the headlines again when the New York Police Department received a letter stating that a bomb had been placed on board the Umbria , anchored in New York . The letter said that the bomb actually for the Oceanic of the White Star Line had been thought. Since there were more women and children on this ship than on the Umbria , the plan was changed. The letter indicated that it was the work of the Mafia , which wanted to harm British shipping interests in the New York harbor.
The Umbria was supposed to leave for her next voyage at noon on May 9th , but the police blocked her pier and had the captain postpone the departure. The officers searched the ship and found the bomb near the gangway to the first class. The 91 cm long and 61 cm wide object was lowered into the water on a rope, brought up again and opened. The detonator was connected to 45 kilograms of dynamite , which would have caused considerable damage if it had detonated at sea.
In addition to the letter, the police had a description of two “Italian” looking men who had been seen planting the bomb. The trail of the bomb makers could be followed as far as Chicago . The Umbria left for Liverpool on May 16, a week late.
The end
After the Umbria and the Etruria , the Cunard Line put the two larger and more modern sister ships Campania and Lucania into service, which set new records and were very popular with the paying public. The Umbria cast off on February 12, 1910 for her last voyage to New York. The return journey began on February 23. The dismantling began immediately after the passengers disembarked after arriving in Liverpool on February 4, 1910.
The Umbria was for 20,000 pounds sold to the Forth Shipbreaking Company and in the Scottish coastal town of Bo'ness scrapped.
Web links / sources
- Detailed description of the ship
- Key data of RMS Umbria in The Ships List
- Umbria key data in the Clydebuilt Ships Database (with picture)
- Report on the launch of the Umbria in the New York Times on July 15, 1884
- Report of the arrival of the Umbria after the wave break in the New York Times, January 1, 1893