Servia (ship)
 The Servia in 1899
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The Servia was a passenger ship put into service in 1881 by the British shipping company Cunard Line , which was used on the route Liverpool - Queenstown - New York . When she was commissioned, she was the largest ship in the world alongside the Great Eastern and also the first Cunard steamer built from steel. She turned out to be a popular and fast ship, but it never received the Blue Ribbon . The Servia was decommissioned and scrapped in 1902.
The ship
The 7,392 GRT steamship Servia was built in Clydebank, Scotland at the shipyard of J. & G. Thomson, the predecessor of John Brown & Company . The launch took place on March 1, 1881. With a length of 156.9 meters and a width of 15.9 meters, the Servia was the largest ship in the Cunard fleet to date and the largest ship after Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Eastern (18,915 GRT) launched in 1858 . The Servia had four decks, two chimneys, and three masts with the rigging of a barque . While the promenade deck was laid out with yellow pine , teak was used on the main deck .
She was the first all- steel steamer in the Cunard Line. Blue steel from Siemens was used for this. Their example was to be used to test whether the material was suitable for steam ships. The Servia was also the world's first ship, which was equipped from the start with electric lights (the City of Berlin the Inman Line decreed Although as early as 1879 on electricity, this had not yet been to see her launch in 1874 above). The smoking room was unusually large, 6.7 meters wide and nine meters long. The main staircase had direct access to the dining room and the music salon on the upper deck, which was joined by the ladies' salon. The dining room, 22.5 meters long and 14.9 meters wide, had seats for 350 guests. The furniture in the room was covered with saffiano leather .
The Servia was initially able to carry 480 cabin passengers and 750 tween deck passengers in a total of 188 cabins and was served by a crew of around 200. In 1889 the passenger capacity was changed so that from then on 400 passengers of the first, 200 of the second and 500 of the third class could be accommodated. The hull was divided into watertight compartments by bulkheads . The bulkheads could be closed from the bridge by means of a connecting rod . This was a technical innovation because until then watertight doors on ships had to be cranked down by hand. The safety equipment also included twelve lifeboats. The ship could hold up to 6,500 tons of ballast (cargo and coal).
In accordance with the requirements of the British Admiralty , a total of ten cannon positions were installed on board the Servia in case the ship had to be used as an auxiliary cruiser . The Servia was powered by two three-cylinder compound steam engines that developed 10,300 hp and allowed a top speed of 17.8 knots (32.9 km / h). There were six steel double-end and one single-end Fox brand boilers , which had a total of 39 firings.
history
On November 26, 1881, the Servia ran under the command of Captain Theodore Cook in Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York, where she arrived on December 8. Cook had already commanded the Gallia and the Russia (the latter ship was Cunard's first screw steamer). He later also commanded the blue band record breaker Umbria . The day after sailing, the ship got caught in a storm that was so strong that it could only call at Queenstown on November 28 instead of November 27. Among the 171 first class passengers on the maiden voyage were Charles Adolphus Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore , William E. Dodge , Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy Sir William Nathan Wrighte Hewett, Bishop of Marquette John Vertin and the US banker Henry F. Gillig. On December 12, 1881, the ship was opened to visitors. It was estimated that around 10,000 people looked at the new steamer, including future New York Mayor Seth Low .
Jane Addams and Henry James were on board the ship on a crossing in August 1883 . On February 6, 1885, the ship arrived in New York after a bad weather voyage with visible storm damage. On June 13, 1885, the Servia ran aground in the Gedney Channel on a sandbar . On January 30, 1886, under the command of Captain Horatio McKay, she collided with the oncoming steamer Noordland (Captain Nickels) of the Red Star Line in heavy snowstorms in the North River , which sustained damage to the starboard side. The Servia went at Liberty Iceland at anchor, where it was determined that she was only slightly damaged.
On May 18, 1889, the Servia ran aground again in the Gedney Channel; this time it was thick fog. On a journey in an easterly direction in July 1891, there was considerable engine damage, which is why the steamer had to be towed back from the Chester to New York. Among the passengers on this trip were Prince George of Greece , Congressman John T. Cutting and Prof. William Graham Sumner with his wife Jeannie. Another collision occurred on September 6, 1892, when the Servia, under the command of Captain Dutton, collided with the sailing ship Undaunted (Captain Lewis) on the North Atlantic in fog and darkness at around 3 a.m. Because of the low speed of the Servia , which had reduced speed due to the fog, both ships were only slightly damaged and were able to continue their voyage without assistance.
On June 7, 1893, the Servia was involved in a serious accident when she rammed the American ship A. McCallum (Captain O'Brien) one day after leaving New York , which sank as a result. One of the 25 men on board the A. McCallum was killed. From November 1899, the Servia, like many other Cunard ships, was temporarily used as a troop transport during the Boer War.
On September 17, 1901, the Servia left for her last voyage to New York, where she arrived on September 25. She was then decommissioned and sold to Thomas W. Ward Shipbreakers Ltd. in April 1902. wrecked in Preston .
Web links
- [1] Brief description of the ship
- [2] Detailed and illustrated description of the ship and its history
- [3] Key data and photo of the Servia in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- [4] A Servia passenger list from 1887 ( Emily Blackwell , Charles Mair , George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland and the German-American chemist Victor Bloede were on board)
- [5] Report on the maiden voyage of the Servia in the New York Times of December 9, 1881
- [6] Report on the collision of the Servia with the Undaunted in the New York Times of September 12, 1892