Carmania
1905
(Rhenania GLR-16)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 19,524 tons
- Dimensions: 675 x 72 x 28 ft.
- Machinery: Steam turbines, triple screw, 21,000 shp = 20 knots
- Passengers: 1750 (300 first class, 350 second class, 1100 third class)
- Crew: 700
- Builder: John Brown & Co, Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland, 1905
- Service: Built for Cunard Line's Liverpool-New York service. Cunard's first steam-turbine-driven liner, near sister to Caronia. Maiden voyage 2 Dec 1905 Liverpool-New York. Caught fire at Liverpool 4 Jun 1912, but not seriously damaged. Rescued survivors of Canadian Northern SS Co's Volturno 9 Oct 1913 with assistance of oil tanker Narragansett, which poured oil on the wild seas to aid the rescue of 521 out of 633 aboard.
Requisitioned as armed merchant cruiser 15 Aug 1914 and given eight 4.7in guns. Just weeks later, she met and sank the German AMC Cap Trafalgar in a two-hour gun battle off Trinidad, 14 September 1914. Carmania herself was hit 79 times, suffering nine dead and many more wounded, but was able to make Freetown and then Gibraltar for repairs. Continued patrols off Portugal to May 1915 and then joined the Gallipoli campaign, later returning to England. After refit she returned to Atlantic patrols until May 1916. No longer needed as an AMC, she switched to trooping duties, mainly transporting Canadians from Halifax to Liverpool.
Restored to peacetime service on the Liverpool-Queenstown-New York run 21 Dec 1918, and later Southampton-New York in 1922. Converted to oil-firing in 1923 and reconfigured for only 425 cabin, 365 tourist, and 650 third class passengers. Sent cruising between New York and Havana in the winter, returning to the North Atlantic in summer. Removed from service Aug 1931 and scrapped in Scotland, 1932.
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