Scythia (ship, 1875)
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The Scythia (I) was a passenger ship of the British shipping company Cunard Line that was put into service in 1875 and was used on regular services from Liverpool via Queenstown to New York and Boston . The ship was scrapped in Italy in 1899 .
The ship
The 4,557 GRT iron steamship Scythia was built in Clydebank (Scotland) at the shipyard of J. & G. Thomson, the predecessor of John Brown & Company , and was launched on October 28, 1874. Her sister ship was also at J. &. G. Thomson built Bothnia (built in 1874). The two ships were intended as direct competition to the Britannic and Germanic of the White Star Line . They were among the first ships to have a continuous promenade deck and cabins that the newspapers of the time described as "hotel-like".
The Scythia had a straight stem , a chimney, three masts with the rigging of a barque, and a single propeller. The two-cylinder compound steam engine developed 600 nominal hp (nhp) and allowed a top speed of 12.5 knots. The passenger accommodations were designed for 300 passengers in the first and 1,100 in the third class.
On May 1, 1875, the Scythia left Liverpool on her maiden voyage via Queenstown to New York. On July 9, 1884, she made her first trip from Liverpool via Queenstown to Boston. On February 22nd, 1885, the Scythia sailed for New York again and the next day got into a hurricane that brought strong winds from the west and high waves. Parts of the aft wheelhouse and the starboard rail were torn away. The ship took in a lot of water after high waves crashed over the quarterdeck.
On April 1, 1887, was Scythia had Liverpool on March 23, with over 800 people on board left in a snowstorm near the lighthouse Minot's Ledge Light in Scituate on the coast of the US state of Massachusetts due. The Atlantic storm was described by Captain Roberts as the worst he had ever seen. The arrival of the Scythia in New York was attended by many onlookers.
On September 20, 1898, the Scythia left for her last voyage to New York. In 1899 it was scrapped in Italy.
Web links
- Summary description of the ship in The Ships List (lower half)
- Key data and photo of the Scythia
- Extract from the history of Scythia
- A Scythia passenger list from 1890
- Report of a stormy crossing of the Scythia in the New York Times of April 3, 1887
- Report of a stormy crossing of the Scythia in the New York Times of April 4, 1887