Virginian (ship, 1905)
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The RMS Virginian was a 1905 transatlantic steamer of the British-Canadian shipping company Allan Line , which was used in passenger and mail traffic between Canada and Great Britain . She and her sister ship Victorian were the first ocean liners to be powered by turbines . From 1920 to 1948 she drove under the name Drottningholm for the Svenska America Lines . It was then sold again and finally scrapped in Trieste (Italy) in 1955 .
Allan Line's ocean liner
The 10,757 GRT turbine ship Virginian was built at the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Glasgow and was launched on December 22, 1904. She and her structurally identical sister ship , which at Workman, Clark in Belfast -built Victorian (10,629 GRT) were the first transatlantic liners turbine powered and with three propellers . The 158.62 meter long and 18.38 meter wide Virginian was constructed of steel and had a chimney, two masts and three decks . She was equipped with three Parsons turbines with an output of 13,200 hp and a cruising speed of 18 knots. The Virginian had a passenger capacity of 426 passengers in first, 286 in second and 1,000 in third class.
On April 6, 1905, ran Virginian in Liverpool for their maiden voyage to Saint John ( New Brunswick off). Just two months after commissioning, it set a new speed record on the Canada route when it covered the route between Cape Race (Newfoundland) and Moville (Ireland) in four days and four hours. In September 1905 she ran aground near Cape St. Charles in the St. Lawrence River , as smoke from a forest fire had blocked the ship's command from sight.
On the night of April 14th to 15th, 1912, the Virginian, under the command of Captain JT Gambell, was one of the ships in radio contact with the RMS Titanic . On the morning after the sinking, the Christian Science Monitor incorrectly reported that the RMS Carpathia of the Cunard Line and the Parisian of the Allan Line had taken all Titanic passengers and that the Virginian was now towing the wrecked ship to New York. In fact, the Virginian was 178 nautical miles away and only arrived at the scene of the accident after the Titanic sank.
She stayed on this route for nine years until she took over the route from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal on June 3, 1914 as a replacement for the sunken RMS Empress of Ireland . After the outbreak of the First World War , it was used for the first time to transport troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the return journey to England in autumn 1914 . In October 1914 she completed another crossing in the regular passenger service to Europe, with Margaret Sanger on board, who fled Canada under the pseudonym "Bertha L. Watson" before her arrest. Then she was used as an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser).
On August 21, 1917, the ship was torpedoed northwest of Tory Island off the northwest coast of Ireland by the German submarine SM U 102 , but not sunk. Three people were killed in the attack. In the same year it fell under the Liner Requisition Scheme and was then transferred to the Canadian Pacific Line , which had bought the Allan Line. From September 16, 1918, she was used again on the route from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal. It was completely overhauled in Glasgow in December 1918.
As a Swedish passenger ship
On February 22nd, 1920 the Virginian went to Gothenburg , where it was converted for Svenska Amerika Linien , founded in 1915 . This increased the tonnage to 11,182 GRT. On May 29, 1920 the ship ran under the new name Drottningholm on its first voyage from Gothenburg to New York . It was used on this route in the following years. In 1922 she was equipped with new oil-powered turbines at De Laval in Stockholm and in 1925 the passenger capacity was redesigned to 532 passengers in cabin class and 854 in third class. In 1930 there was a further update to cabin, tourist and third class.
On March 7, 1940, the Drottningholm made her last regular crossing from Gothenburg to New York. Until 1946 she served the International Committee of the Red Cross for the exchange of wounded and prisoners between the warring parties in World War II . On March 27, 1946, she resumed regular service on her pre-war route to New York. Her last trip on the route was in February 1948. She had completed 440 crossings for the Swedish American Line.
Late years and end
On April 8, 1948, the ship began its first voyage for the Italian shipping company Mediterranean Lines Inc. ( Home Lines ) founded in 1946 , which was based in Genoa , but whose ships were registered in Panama . From then on, it shuttled between Genoa and South America under the name Brasil . From May 1, 1950, the ship drove from Genoa via Naples to Halifax and New York, with Piraeus , Malta and Cannes also being approached.
In 1951 there were conversions again, as a result of which the tonnage was reduced to 10,043 GRT. The ship was renamed Homeland and from then on carried 96 passengers in the first and 846 in the tourist class. Until March 1952, the ship shuttled between Hamburg , Cherbourg , Southampton , Halifax and New York. Then the Homeland was used again in the Mediterranean service until October 1954.
In February 1955, the 50-year-old ship was scrapped in Trieste .
Web links
- Summary ship data in The Ships List (lower third)
- Technical and historical data in Clydebuilt Ships Database
- 3483 Technical and historical data in Norway Heritage
- The Titanic and the Virginian
- Full history of the ship and pictures
- Margaret Sanger aboard the Virginian
- Entry in the submarine database
- "Passengers Safely Moved and Steam Titanic Taken In Tow" (report from the Christian Science Monitor , Boston, April 15, 1912)